The Filter Girl
by I Wish I Was A Dinosaur
Summary: Sometimes you have to fall to rise up higher than before. - The Filter Girl. Sakura Haruno isn't exactly normal. She doesn't seem to mind. What's the problem? Everyone else does.
1. The Flap of a Butterfly's Wings

Hello all. Sakura's personality has been warped to that of a more mature person. I'll explain at the very end of this. This was intended to be a oneshot, and as such it moves kind of fast. It also is going to be instead a two chapter story. At least this is my plan but knowing myself I'll probably change it and make the plot more complex, but I'm not sure.

Unlike most of the other high school fictions, this one is more trite and true to real high school. At least that's how I intended the feel to be.

* * *

I've been passed from family member to family member.

My mother and father travel around the world leaving me alone.

So I've spent my whole life moving from family member to family member.

I don't know why no one wants to keep me.

I'm always the perfect child.

I never fight in school.

I always get great grades.

I dress in recent fashions and have normal friends like they expect.

Yet, none of them keep me for more than a few months. They say I am too perfect. Everything about me is too perfect. I always outshine their own children and they blame it on me. Just because their children are idiots, I must take the blame and be passed on again. The perfect being known as Haruno Sakura can finally be a real person, because finally they've decided that now that I am sixteen, I can move back to the empty house my parents own, and live on my own. I'm going back to Konoha. I'm going back to being me.

Free from these shackles of trying to be perfect for the sake of wanting to be kept, I am going to prove my own self worth to myself and just be me. Being yourself in high school? It's an unheard of idea, I know, but I don't really give a shit anymore. I, Haruno Sakura, shall never again try to be something I'm not. If things happen, they will. If they don't , they won't.

--

Beep beep went Sakura's alarm clock as it flashed seven forty two in red digits. A hand smashed down onto the clock as a messy headed pink haired girl was angrily awakened. She sat up with a big yawn and stretched a bit before looking at her nearly broken alarm clock.

"Oh shit, I'm going to be late!" Sakura said as she quickly jumped out of her bed and striped before jumping into the shower just across the hall. After a five minute shower, she ran out hair dripping wet and grabbed a towel quickly drying off. She had planned to dress in a cute outfit, but at the moment her top priority was to just get there on time. So she grabbed the closet clothes which was a greenish pair of baggy cargo pants, and a tight fitting black shirt. She pulled on a pair of plain black shoes that were more for athletic use than for fashion, before grabbing her red jacket with safety pins and different buttons that had different slogans on them all over it. Quickly she shoved her CD player into one of the bigger cargo pant pockets and along with her around the ear headphones that blocked out noise which she put around her neck. She grabbed her wallet, cellphone, and keys and put them in the pockets before stopping to look in the mirror. Her hair was still dripping water not like that was her top priority at the moment. Her hair was short just a bit short of her shoulders, and was currently in a messy wild fashion from the water.

"It'll do." She said with a sigh as she grabbed a brush and combed through it real fast. She then ran downstairs and grabbed her gray sidebag that she doodled all over with trite sayings and simple drawings before running out the door. She pulled out her cellphone and looked at the time. It was seven fifty eight. She now had two minutes to get to her school. Sakura moved towards the gate at the side of her house and opened it. Behind the gate was a simple bike. Immediately she rolled it out before jumping on and started to ride as fast as she could. Originally she had set her alarm clock to five thirty in the morning, but apparently it had translated to seven thirty somehow. It had probably malfunctioned from her fierce punches every morning. She should really buy a new more durable one. As she finally made it to her school nearly getting hit by a car at least twice, it was nearly eight twenty three.

"Shit." Sakura kept on repeating as she pedaled her way slowly into the Konoha parking lot. Near the front of the school was a bike rake, and finally she smiled a bit exasperated. She closed her eyes in pure bliss as she pedaled towards it when suddenly a car pulling in at a rapid speed drove up and pretty much hit Sakura dead on. The car screeched to a stop and immediately a blonde haired boy popped out of the driver's door.

"I'm so sorry!" He yelled. "I didn't mean to kill you!" He yelled as he started to freak out as he looked over the girl. The girl was sitting on the ground with dirtied clothes and a tear of two on her pants and jacket. Sakura looked over at her bike which was now mangled. "Are you okay?!" The boy said as he waved a hand in front of her face. She grabbed it and glared up at him. "Eh…"

"You broke my bike…" Sakura's eye twitched as she stood up and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. "How am I supposed to get around?!"She started to shake him as she yelled a bunch of random threats. People inside the classrooms with windows looked out and glanced at the strange girl shaking the boy.

"Uh.. sorry." Naruto said as he dizzily tried to maintain a sense of balance as the girl let go of him.

"This is officially a not good day." Sakura said as she plopped down on the curb and checked out her injuries. Naruto looked at her surprised.

"You're that transfer, right?" He asked as he offered her a hand.

"No, I've been here since freshman year, how could you not know me?" Sakura said with thick sarcasm.

"Really?" Naruto asked with a surprised look. 'This boy is an idiot…' Sakura thought as she sweatdropped as she took his hand and stood up before dusting off her clothes.

"No, I was kidding." Sakura said with a light laugh feeling bad at the boy's innocence. "I did just transfer in… today actually. I'm Haruno Sakura." She smiled lightly trying to ignore the slight injuries she had gotten.

"Uzamaki Naruto." He grinned. "Sorry about the whole.. running you over." He said with an uneasy laugh.

"Yeah… well I'm only worried about my poor bike…" Sakura said as she grabbed her bag from the floor. "At least now I have a real reason for being late." She said with a light laugh.

"Speaking of which I should get to class…" Naruto thought as he looked at his watch to see that it was now eight forty two.

"See you around, Uzamaki-san." Sakura said as she watched the boy rush towards the building. As soon as he disappeared into the building Sakura sighed. "Does he realize he left his car parked in the middle of nowhere?" She shrugged and headed inside towards the building. Immediately she found the office and walked inside. It was a warm little room with a secretary like woman sitting out in front of another door probably leading to the principal's room. There were five chairs lining the right side of the room. As soon as she opened the door the woman looked up. She had short choppy black hair and a small pig strangely enough in her lap. She smiled warmly.

"You must be Haruno-san. I was wondering if you were going to show up. Did you get lost?" The woman asked as she started to look through folders for her schedule.

"Sure let's go with that…" Sakura laughed uneasily as she didn't really want to tell someone that she got hit by a student. Naruto seemed nice and telling on him seemed kind of childish.

"My name is Shizune and feel free to stop by the office if you need any help. Would you like a guide Ms Haruno?" Shizune said as she handed Sakura a map and a class schedule with her classes highlighted.

"Thanks, but no thanks."

"You might want to stop by the nurses office."

"What?"

"Your knee wound?" Shizune pointed towards her knee that was currently scraped up with dirt and was bleeding a bit.

"Oh, will do." Sakura smiled as she walked out of the office and headed towards the bathroom. She washed out the wound until the blood stopped before walking back out to the halls just as the bell rang. "So much for going to first hour." She sighed as she looked at her second hour class. "AP Calculus. BC. How fun." Sakura said with a sigh as she wandered towards the room. Just as the halls were emptying she found the room, and entered. She looked in to find only six other people in the classroom besides her and the teacher.

"You must be the transfer, Haruno Sakura." The teacher had a mask on and a strange band that covered his left eye along with silver hair though he looked only in his late twenties or so. Sakura nodded her head as she looked at the six other people. They all eyed Sakura strangely. "Would you like to introduce yourself?" The man asked with a bored tone.

"Not really." Sakura said as she shrugged lightly.

"Well, here's your book." He handed it to her ."Study well. Take a seat then. I am Hatake Kakashi. You may call me Kakashi-sensei." The seats were all empty except for the last row in the back where all six of the students sat. The first boy had long brown hair and lavender eyes that abnormally had no pupils. He wore a white track jacket with a stripe through it and plain black jeans underneath. The boy next to him had raven black hair with long bangs in the front and slightly spiked hair in the back. He wore a zip up jacket like Sakura's but his was deep black and unzipped. It revealed a plain navy shirt along with dark blue jeans. Next to him was a boy who was currently asleep. He wore a simple shirt with a puffy vest over with baggy shorts on. He had brown hair tied up that resembled a pineapple. Next to him was the only other girl in this class. She had sandy blond hair tied up in four different pigtails. She wore a black spaghetti strap shirt and had on faded jeans. A green jacket was tied around her waist. Finally next to her was a boy with make up which slightly scared her. He wore soft of an animal hat that hid his hair and he wore a black sweater with blue jeans.

After taking them all in Sakura nodded, before taking the second to the front row and dropping her bag. She pulled on of the desk in front of her and put her feet on the chair with a bored look on her face. She pulled on her headphones that had been resting upon her neck and put them on. Sakura then reached into her pocket and pressed play. A CD mix that one of her 'friends' from her other school had made this for her. It was a mix of screaming rock music. She pulled out a pen and paper and started to take notes. The teacher sighed.

"Another fan of math." Kakashi went to the board and started doing math problems and explaining them though no one really seemed to be listening. The rest of her classes were just as this one, Sakura listening to music rather than the teachers and writing down the notes. Sakura never introduced herself, and because she was always listening to music no one cared to talk to her. It felt much easier to get through high school this way. The day was almost done as lunch finally came. She walked into the cafeteria and pulled out her sac lunch and looked at all of the people in the cafeteria. The groups were all the same. The outcasts and nerds sat on the outside ring of things. The drama kids sat somewhere closer in along with the cheerleaders and jocks. The popular sat smack dab in the middle of room. It was a different set up than her last school, but it was the same old school. She sighed and looked at them all rather bored. Some people snuck her looks wanting to offer her a seat or wanting to talk to the new girl who had hardly said a word. The whole new kid experience was by now a normal occurrence, but tired of approaching people, Sakura had decided this year since none of her relatives would care whether or not she had had normal friends and fit in she was going to let things just happen. If someone really wanted to talk to her, they would. There would be no effort on her part. If they didn't click they didn't. Naruto seemed like a good candidate for a friend since he was so easy to get mad at, but so far she hadn't shared a single class with him. In fact, even though she was pretty positive he was junior too, she wouldn't have a single class with them. Because of her perfect grades, Sakura was extremely advanced for her age, and was currently taking nearly all A.P.s. Most of her classes were with the extremely elite who probably looked down on her. As she looked through hoping to find him, she did. He was sitting smack dab in the middle of the popular kid table which was probably not a good table to approach if you're a new kid.

Sakura immediately walked back out the door of the cafeteria officially destroying some people's ideas of asking her to sit with them. A wide smile spread across her lips as she headed towards the outskirts of the school where the school field was. Sakura pulled off her headphones letting her ears out for the first time since second period. The silence in the air was quite nice. The smile seemed to be plastered on her lips as she plopped down onto the soft grass and looked up at the blue sky with white fluffy clouds passing by slowly. "Junior year seems like it'll go by peacefully." She closed her eyes and smiled as she whistled a sweet tune before sitting up and eating the small bag lunch she had packed the night before. "Bliss." She said as she munched on it.

* * *

Her days continued just as this one did. She bought a new bike and never ran into Naruto, and she never took off her headphones. It seemed like for everyday she was here, she got closer and closer to being completely invisible and ignored which was fine by her. Everyday, she wore her headphones and listened to a CD straight through all her classes. She even got away with it in P.E. Her crazy teacher said that as long as she did the work, he didn't care, but it was ruining her youthfulness. Everyday, she would eat by the field at lunch. Everyday, she would come and go by bike. By her second week of school no one knew anything about the pink haired girl except her name and that she liked used music, and no one cared to know anything about her. At least that's what Sakura had thought.

Sakura stood by her locker pulling out her B.C. Calculus book before putting it back in. 'I never even use it, I just take notes in my notebook.' Sakura thought just as the CD ended. Taking off her headphones to not get them yanked out, she pulled the CD player out from her bag where she kept it when she didn't wear her cargo pants. She set them in her locker as she reached to the top shelf to grab a CD holder. She opened the CD player and put the CD in the holder just as a hand came down and smacked it to the ground. Sakura not caring to even look up at the person bent down to pick it up, but that same person kicked it away. Sakura rolled her eyes and walked over and picked it up not really caring too much. With a quick examination no harm was done to her CDs. Heading back to her open locker, she let out a sigh of relief. It was then the same hand slammed her locker shut effectively making Sakura fall back onto her butt. A couple people around just snickered at her fall. Finally reaching her peak of tolerance, Sakura looked up to see blonde hair and blue eyes.

'Wow a walking cliché.' Sakura thought as she let out a mild laugh. The girl sneered at her.

"Look, I am sick of your stuck up attitude." The girl said as she pointed towards Sakura who still sat on the floor. A pink eyebrow went up and a smug look appeared on the pinkettes face as the girl glared at her. Sakura moved into a cross legged position and rested her chin on her arm which was leaning on her knee. It was as if she was enjoying a show. "Your little attitude of screw-the-world-I'll-listen-to-my-music is really annoying. Since you obviously hate it here, and don't like any of us, why don't you just do us all a favour and go be emo and kill yourself already? Okay?" The blonde's fair contorted into a strange look. Her eyebrows were together and her lips were in a dumb expression. The silly cliché of this was hilarious to Sakura who had seen this bit happen ten times over. The pink haired girl let out a light chortle at the blonde's threat. Quite a few people were gathering. No one had heard the girl talk, and no one even though the girl could laugh or so emotion, but there it was a perfect smile and laughter spilling out of her as if she was as normal as everyone else was. "What is so damn funny?" She looked around nervously. This kind of reaction was far from what Ino was expecting. She was expecting the new weird girl to start crying or to fight back or do something normal. Laughter was weird, and it make Ino look like an idiot. "Are you looking down on me like the rest of us?!" Ino said a little louder than she was intending to. Sakura erupted into a louder laugh of giggles and leaned back and slapped her thigh as if it was thoroughly hilarious. Ino looked rather flustered. "You're so arrogant!" The girl yelled. The bell then rang and people began to empty out of the halls. Ino took this and quickly weaved through the crowds to run away. 'How dare she make me look like an idiot?!' Ino thought as she stormed into her English class. Her face was flustered.

* * *

Sakura meanwhile just stayed on the floor until everyone left the hallways. She let out a loud laugh as soon as all were gone, but soon the laughter stopped and turned into a sad sigh. "There goes my hopes of a peaceful junior year."

* * *

Later that day, Sakura sat at the school field again. She was staring up at the sky when suddenly a white liquid poured down onto her face effectively wetting her pink hair. She sat up and turned around to find Ino standing there with an empty milk carton crushed in her hand. "Are you too good to eat with the rest of us?" Ino said as she chucked the empty carton at Sakura. Behind her a group of girls laughed along with her. A couple of them were laughing uneasily as though they knew it was wrong, yet they were laughing to fit in. Sakura just seemed unaffected as she looked at her wet hair.

"It's wet." That was all Sakura said before picking up Ino's trash along with her own and walking back to the large school building. Ino stood there aghast. Had her tormenting really been to no avail?

"What a bitch." One of the girl's said.

"Totally, she was probably a slut who is used to getting trashed." The girls kept on gossiping and eventually Ino jumped in, but Ino was being shaken by Sakura. The way she never really responded to thing was really getting under her skin. 'What a horrible woman…' Ino thought as she tried to keep up the façade of not caring.

* * *

With her headphones thankfully fine and away in her bag next to the sink, Sakura was in the girl's bathroom washing milk out of her hair when suddenly a lavender eyed girl walked in. Shock was across the girl's face as she wondered about the wet hair. A smile danced across Sakura's lips as she looked at the girl's obvious inquiry.

"Someone spilled milk on my hair, Hyuuga-san." Sakura said as she took a handful of water and splashed it onto her hair.

"You know m-my name." Hinata stuttered as her jaw was open in astonishment.

"Just cause I have headphones on, doesn't mean I don't listen." Sakura said before picking up her bag and heading towards the door. Sakura walked past Hinata and out the door thoroughly. As soon as the door feel, Hinata sunk to her knees in shock. A blonde haired girl and her posse walked in to the restroom and looked at Hinata on the floor.

"Hinata-san, what happened?" Ino said as she bent down to the girl.

"Didn't Haruno just come out of the bathroom?" One of the girl's said.

"Did that Haruno girl do this to you?" Ino asked as she shook Hinata who was still silent in shock. "What did she do? She picked on you didn't she?" Hinata snapped out of it and looked at Ino a bit scared. Hinata was once picked on by Ino's group and hated it.

"W-well no-not-" Ino's eyes narrowed as she glared at Hinata.

"Sakura _did_ something to you, right?" The dark look in Ino's eyes told Hinata that Hinata was going to be the next victim if she didn't comply. Falling under the influences of peer pressure, Hinata hung her head and nodded. "Don't worry Hinata, we'll help you get revenge." Ino smirked.

* * *

As sixth period came to a close Sakura with her headphones in their normal place around her ears, she walked out first like she did everyday to be greeted by a large group of girls. Her classmates stood behind her looking at the girls and Sakura curiously. Ino was holding a CD case that had the name Haruno Sakura clearly printed on it.

"Huh?" She stated as each of the girls held CDs in their hands all poised and ready.

"Ever heard of an Ipod?" Ino said with a smile. One of the girls broken the CDs she was holding and dropped it to the ground.

"Oops." The girl said with a smirk. Ino and the other girls laughed.

"If you don't apologize to Hinata, then we'll break the rest of your CDs." Ino said as she pulled Hinata by the wrist and pushed her forward. Hinata looked nervous. Her eyes read apologetic as she looked Sakura in the eyes. Sakura pulled off her headphones.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me." Ino said as yet another one of the girls broke the CDs and scattered them on the floor. "Apologize or your little CD collection is gone."

"Apologize for what?" Hinata looked at Sakura with a pleading expression. 'Please don't egg them on Haruno-san.' Hinata thought. A smile seemed to be dancing upon her lips as Sakura let out a light chortle of laughter. This surprised the classmates who stood behind her. Apparently Sakura actually did have emotions they all thought. Who knew?

"Fine, break them all. Have fun listening to that one CD." Ino said as all of the girl's broke CD's and dropped them. Sakura just laughed a bit more. It was then she did something no one expected. The little music lover pulled out her own CD player and pulled out the CD and snapped it in half, before dropping her CD player and stepping on it. It was at that moment the teacher decided to come and see what had happened.

"Haruno-san, did you do this?!" He shouted as he pointed to the mess of CD's and the CD player under her foot. Before she could answer, Ino and her group all pointed to her and made accusations saying that she had broken all of their favorite CDs. The teacher infuriated pulled Sakura by the wrist to the principal's office. "Everyone go to your next class or leave if you have none."

Ino's group triumphantly dissipated almost immediately while Hinata and a couple classmates of Sakura stayed there contemplating the whole situation for a moment. A few of them believed Ino's lies, but some of them knew better. Sakura was innocent, but none of them like Hinata could speak up. Peer pressure is too hard to surmount to, what can one person do?

* * *

Sakura sat in the office. Her hair felt a bit crusty from the milk that was left in her hair so she spent the ten minutes in the office waiting for the principal's meeting with her trying to un-crust the hair. Without her music, she didn't really have anything to do. The door to the principal's office opened and the angry teacher who caught her motioned her in.

"Haruno Sakura, perfect grades and behavior up until this year. Is it true that you are living on your own?" The woman said from behind the folder.

"It's her lack of parenting at home!" The teacher said angrily as he was still exiting the room.

"Our conversation is over, Ibisu." The woman said as she set the folder down. She had blond hair pulled back into two ponytails and brown eyes with a single purple dot on her foredhead. Her chest was rather large to boot. "Shut the door." She commanded, and the man obeyed as he shut the door and headed to his classroom. "Now Sakura?"

"Yes." Sakura said dully. "I live alone."

"You move quite a bit and it never affected you before?" Sakura shook her head, and Tsunade sighed. "Let me just put it bluntly, does it matter that you live alone?" Sakura shook her head. "According to your record, you've never done such a thing before." Tsunade said with a sigh. "Listen because of your clean record and plus you don't seem like the type to do this, I'll let you off no punishment, but you need to clean it up."

"That's fair." Sakura stood up and bowed before heading toward the door.

"It's funny." Tsunade let out a light laugh.

"Hm?" Sakura looked back at Tsunade confused.

"You don't seem your age."

"No, it's just I've been through the same high school experience. I'm adjusted and indifferent to it. Can't wait til it's over though?" Sakura said with a bright smirk on her face.

"You're rather different from the rumors. I'm happily surprised."

"If you show an true interest, it's easy to show a response back." With that said, Sakura walked out of Tsunade's office and back to the hall to clean up the mess. As soon as Sakura left the office, Shizune walked into Tsunade's office.

"So what do you think of her?" Shizune said with a curious smile on her face.

"I think she's a clever girl." Tsunade smiled.

* * *

Her meeting with the principal was brief, but the wait to get in was long and seventh period was long over. No one was there to make this worse, which made it easier for her. Sakura walked to the mess with a plastic trash bag. She picked up the bigger pieces of them carefully and tired her best to keep from stabbing herself, but unfortunately by the end of the job, her hand was bleeding in five different places on her right hand, and in seven different places on her left. Some of the cuts were deeper than others, but nothing too bad, Sakura thought. As she picked up the trash bag along with her regular school bag, she headed to the trashcan at the back of the school. Surprisingly enough a girl with lavender hair was waiting for her right outside. Hinata stood there pressing her fingers together nervously.

"I'm so sorry, Haruno-san!" Hinata said as she bowed. Sakura just walked right past here and headed back down towards the back of the school. Hinata immediately stood up straight and followed her feeling extremely guilty. "I know you really didn't do anything, but Ino-san can be so intimidating when she found me… it just happened… and I couldn't deny it… or it would happen to me and…" Hinata kept on going on until the two had reached the trashcan which Sakura lifted the cap of, before dropping the remains of the CDs into it. "Oh, and those CDs I'll pay for all of them to be replaced… and"

"They were mix CDs made by friends." Sakura interrupted Hinata.

"Oh well… I still… I'll recompensate you for them… name the price… I am so sorry Haruno-san." Hinata bowed again. Sakura let out a light laugh. It startled Hinata and made her look up from her bow. It was then she noticed the red blood dripping from Sakura's hands. "You hands… the CDs… I'm so so so so so so sorry, Haruno-san." Hinata managed to bow a little bit lower. Sakura walked over and bent down and looked at her from underneath.

"I understand." A warm smile graced her lips let out a light laugh. "It's not your fault." Hinata stood straight up and Sakura did also. "I hope we can be friends." Hinata smiled as a tear escaped from her eye.

"Me too." Hinata said with a smile. Tsunade from the roof of the school looked down at the two.

"Very interesting." Tsunade smiled and walked towards the stairs down.

* * *

The next day Sakura arrived at school with headphones on her ears. Gossip had already started to spread, and people were staring at Sakura. What did she have? Everyone wondered as Sakura walked through the halls the same as she normally was except that now she had band aids all over her hands. Ino immediately confronted her that morning.

"So you had an extra CD player, is that why you broke it? You're probably some rich snob that can afford like ten of them. What a snob." Ino said as she bumped shoulders with her though Sakura just stifled. She turned to face Ino and lifted up the cord of her headphones. The end of it wasn't plugged into anything. "Are you stupid?!" Ino smacked Sakura's hand away making her drop the cord. Sakura just smiled at her blankly. People looked at them, but Ino quickly walked away not wanting to make a huge scene. 'That woman is purposely torturing me, I'm sure.'

Hinata saw Sakura coming and opened her mouth to say something, but couldn't find the words. Sakura smiled warmly in Hinata's direction, but said nothing as well. 'I-I'm so weak…' Hinata thought as she looked after the girl. 'I don't want Haruno-san to be lonely anymore… but I'm too scared… will Ino-san start to pick on me too?' She started to press her fingers together as she furrowed her eyebrows. Suddenly a voice broken through the halls extremely loud,

"SAKURA-CHAN!" A boy said as he ran down the halls to meet up with said girl. He had wild blond hair and bright blue eyes and currently he was dragging a boy with raven black hair with matching black eyes. The pinkette turned around and looked at him a bit surprised.

"Uzamaki-san?" Sakura questioned as she saw him bounding down the halls. She also recognized the boy that he was dragging along. It was Uchiha Sasuke who was in A.P Calculus class. All eyes were suddenly on her as Naruto finally caught up with her a wide goofy grin on his face.

"I thought you had transferred schools, since I never saw you. BUT," He gasped for air, before continuing. "I heard this rumor that you had broken a bunch of girl's CDs which I found impossible since most people use Ipods or mp3 players. Anyways, so that is when I realized that you were still here!" Sakura stared at him incredulously.

"Oh-kay." Sakura thought as she scratched her head confused.

"How come I never saw you?" He asked with an excited expression.

"I take mostly A.P. classes with seniors." Sakura smiled at him. The two seemed to talk like they were old friends.

"How are you wounds? I was worried I had really killed you." Naruto said with a light laugh. Sakura laughed along with him.

"They're fine." The animated look on her face seemed so natural even though most of the people around her thought that the only look she had was emotionless stoic. Hinata looked on the two of them. She glanced at Naruto and a light pink blush came to her cheeks. 'How can he be so fearless?' **(Dear Hinata it is because he is obliviously dumb at noticing the awkwardness between everyone else and Sakura. :3)**She thought as she felt even guiltier for not even waving to Sakura in the halls. 'Why am I so weak?' Hinata said as she quickly looked away from the sight, if she watch anymore, she'd start crying at her own weakness. So Hinata ran towards her classroom.

"Have you met Teme?" Naruto asked as he motioned to the raven haired boy that was pulled them by his shirt.

"If you stretch this shirt out, I swear I'm going to kill you, Naruto." Sasuke said as he glared at him. He then glanced at Sakura.

"Uchiha-san and I share a class, but we've never been formerly introduced." Sakura replied with a strange look in her eyes.

"You never introduced yourself to me either." Sasuke said obviously taking the offensive to her gaze, but somehow Sakura just laughed. Naruto seemed a bit confused.

"Exactly." Sakura said with a smirk. Just then the bell rang, it startled the three of them.

"Well, I'll see you at lunch hopefully, Sakura-chan!" Naruto yelled as he grabbed Sasuke who was currently contemplating Sakura's cryptic message.

"I eat outside, Uzamaki-san." Sakura said a bit loudly. Everyone practically knew that was why she was never in the lunch area.

"It's Naruto!" The blonde shouted as he ran off to his classroom that seemed to be pretty far away for him to run to. Sakura just let out a light laugh.

"Naruto-san…" She shook her head and sighed before walking to her classroom. People were all staring at her like her first day. Haruno Sakura was actually friendly and somehow knew Naruto. It was a miracle and a great way to start rumors. As first period came to a close, her classmates considered her talking with Naruto a fluke as she hadn't changed one bit. She still had on her headphones **((though no CD player connected to it which she put on display by letting it drag on the floor.))** As she exited first period, Ino was standing outside waiting for her completely furious.

"HOW dare you?!" Ino shouted as she slapped Sakura clear across the face. Sakura just stood there shocked and rubbed her cheek.

"Hello, Yamanaka-san." Sakura said as she pulled the headphones which even without the music muffled the sounds of everything.

"Don't play it coy! You always had an arrogant attitude, but now I hear you're flirting with my Sasuke-kun!" Sakura just stood there silent as if taking it all in. "You don't even deny it!" Ino yelled as she reached back for another slap, but surprisingly someone had grabbed it. Hinata's hand was currently holding on to Ino's wrist. "Let go, Hinata." Ino said as she glared at Sakura clearly letting rage take her over.

"S-she… di-didn't.. c-co-confi-rm.. e-either, I-Ino-san…" Hinata kept her grip tight.

"You're siding with her!" Ino said as she shook her wrist free and glared at Hinata. She let out a huff before reaching back to slap Hinata. Hinata closed her eyes waiting for the impact. It wouldn't be the first time Ino had hit her or anyone for that matter. The sound of a slap could be heard, but Hinata felt nothing. She looked up to see a pink haired girl standing in front of her. Sakura's pink cheek was now a deeper rouge color that looked like it was bruising her pale skin. She winced a bit.

"Don't bring others into this." Sakura said in angry tone. It was the first time, Ino had even gotten a real reaction out of her and somehow it scared her. Ino faltered under Sakura's harsh gaze.

"S-stay away from Sasuke-kun!" Ino yelled as she ran down the hall towards her next class. Sakura turned to face Hinata.

"Are you alright, Hyuuga-san?" Sakura asked as she seemed to be examining the girl. Hinata nodded. "I'm glad." Sakura smiled happily. The bell rang. "I'm going to be late for second period, gotta go." Sakura ran off towards the classroom. Hinata stood there with a happy grin spread across her lips. She had done it. Naruto being unafraid had inspired Hinata to actually stand up to Ino and help her new friend Sakura. She felt so happy, she could cry; but she didn't. She skipped off to her class with a happy grin that just didn't want to fade.

* * *

Sakura walked into her math class and sat like she always did, but this time the students in the back stirred a bit when she entered. On her face as bright as day was a red twinge to her cheek that was slowly turning into a bruise. Sasuke whose thoughts were still dwelling on her cryptic words suddenly had a new interest. His eyes bore into her back during as she sat down and took out her notebook and slid on her headphones as she did everyday. At that moment, he noticed that her headphones were now plugged into notihng. Was the rumor true? That didn't make sense. Wasn't she the one to break someone else's CD player?

All around school, rumors were flying about Haruno Sakura. It's not like there weren't before, but the ones they had this time actually had basis. It told stories where Haruno Sakura actually had a heart and emotions and didn't actually always listen to music. Rumors were circulating and people wanted to ask her questions; the only problem was that some of the rumors had been indulgent and added in more violence on Sakura's part. The little fight with Ino had somehow been flipped to Ino being beaten up mercilessly by Sakura who did it because she was bored. The CD incident had turned into Sakura breaking into Ino's locker stealing her CD player and CDs and breaking them both in front of her. It portrayed Sakura as the villain who hated Ino because Ino had a crush on Sasuke and Sakura didn't want competition. Some had mentioned Hinata being Sakura's secret spy; but no one believed those, because Hinata was too innocent. These rumors along with the physical evidence that Sasuke had seen Sakura have during second period really didn't add up. So finally after second period he questioned her at her locker.

"It doesn't make sense." Sakura closed her locker to look at the face of Uchiha Sasuke who seemed to be confounded. She pulled down her headphones.

"What doesn't Uchiha-san?" Sakura asked as she started to make her way to her classroom. He followed her which made several people notice this. Rumors would fly, he knew it.

"The rumors and the physical evidence." Sasuke said as he glared at the girl. When he first saw the girl, he thought nothing of it. She just seemed like the loner type who didn't like to talk with others. There was nothing of interest. Rumors couldn't be believed at first, but up until two weeks ago none of them had basis. Plus upon actually talking to the girl herself, and noticing what Naruto had not, Sakura was a loner in all of her classes, but wasn't the type that is normally alone. Sakura's lack of response seemed to bother him even more. "Let me put it bluntly, you beat up Ino and broke her things, even though you have a bruise and no more music."

"That's right, Uchiha-san." Sakura said in a sing songy voice. Sasuke seemed to get even more frustrated than she did. "Aren't you going to be late?" Sakura asked as she had stopped in front of her next classroom. Sasuke looked away indignantly before walking off. Sakura just rolled her eyes and walked into the classroom. The students stared at her as she did her normal routine. 'Everyone really pays too much attention to rumors.' Sakura thought with a sigh as she slipped on her headphones to filter out the sounds of their murmurs.

* * *

Sasuke was sitting in his history period with a dark expression. This girl seemed like such an enigma. The way she could dance around actually revealing her personality. It seemed like she was fine with Naruto, but he was an idiot. It was like she had experienced it all before and was used to the kind of treatment she got. It was as though she was reading people like books; on the other hand, when Sasuke tried to read her, the book of Sakura would somehow snap shut. It was a bit aggravating. Soon, though he would find out she was just like every other girl who was shallow and annoying and always dreaming up nonsense, he was sure that he would be bored of her soon.

* * *

Hinata sat in her third hour classroom a bit tired. All second period people had questioned her about Sakura and if the rumors were true. She had a hard time answering them and got really nervous being the center of attention and had fainted halfway through the period. She had recovered in time to make it to third period, but somehow it felt as though things would only get worse. Ino was in this class. Hinata would have to face Ino along with the other people who were asking questions. She pondered the idea of ditching. Her older cousin Neji who was a senior had done it once in a while to hang out with his girlfriend Tenten. She sighed in defeat. Sure, she had enough courage to stand up to Ino, but ditching in the same day unthinkable. Hinata wished that Ino would not be there.

"Hinata." Ino said as she stood towering over the shy girl. Hinata didn't say a word, she just looked at her desk like it was the most interesting thing in the world. "I know you're still scared of Sakura, but seriously." She put her hand under Hinata's chin and made her look up to Ino's menacing glare. "If you defend her again, you're done." Ino walked off briskly and headed to her own seat. Hinata felt fearful, but part of her was welcoming this feeling. It was as though she wanted to pay her dues for Sakura. It was frightening and the ramifications could be bad, but somehow it felt like a huge weight was slowly being put off her back.

* * *

Fourth period went by like a breeze for Sakura since she didn't share a class with anyone who would dare approach the girl. It was a surprisingly nice period, and thankfully it ended without a hitch. She headed towards her normal spot on the field outside, and to her surprise she found Hinata, Naruto, and Sasuke with his shirt stretched out a bit which probably meant that Naruto had dragged him here.

"Oh." Sakura said as she saw Hinata and Naruto waving at her. She walked over with a big grin on her face. "You don't have to change your eating arrangements for me."

"But I'm pretty sure you wouldn't change yours to ours!" Naruto shouted as Sakura plopped down.

"Well that's true." Sakura said with a laugh. Again, Sasuke was surprised at how animated the girl could become.

"Hey, what happened to your cheek?" The pink color had faded, but now a light purplish bruise had taken its place.

"I fell, right Hyuuga-san?" Sakura said in a sing songy voice like the one she had used before with Sasuke. Hinata immediately clued in and nodded her head in agreement. 'At least the woman was smart enough to know it was best to keep Naruto far from the truth' thought Sasuke.

"Must have been awkward, so where did you go before this school, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked with a warm smile.

"I forget the name, but I believe it was somewhere in the snow country." Everyone stared at her like she was crazy.

"Wow, so you're from the snow country. How did you cope with the weather change?" Hinata asked politely. Naruto still had his jaw hung in shock while Sasuke coolly held back his emotions which was currently shock.

"Well, technically I'm from nowhere." Sakura said with a smile that didn't quite meet her eyes. "I travel quite a bit." Everyone felt an awkward silence coming up so Naruto quickly started to ramble about what everyone was eating.

"So what are you having Sakura-chan? I'm having ramen, it's the best damn thing-!" Sakura had punched Naruto in the face. Naruto rubbed his head as he glared at Sakura. "What was that for?!" Sasuke had to smirk a bit at this. Hinata just looked rather surprised, if she could hit Naruto fine why hadn't she fought against Ino. Hinata pondered this, until Sakura explained,

"Why are you cursing in front of a lady?" Sakura let out a sigh.

"With a punch like that are you really considered a lady?" Naruto asked as he continued to rub his head. Sakura's eye twitched as she girl punched him again. She daintily wiped her mouth and stood up.

"I'm done." Sakura let out a light laugh as a sign of victory before walking away from the three who dared to speak to the strange girl.

"That hurt, Sakura-chan!" Naruto rubbed his head. Hinata pulled out a bandage and offered it to Naruto. **(if you're wondering why Hinata has them, I am too)**

"Thanks Hinata-chan." He grinned and got extremely close to Hinata causing her to go tomato red, before fainting. "Eh? Hinata-chan?!" He shouted as he shook her. Sakura looked back at them and hit him again, before picking up Hinata and walking towards the nurse's offices.

"Naruto is such an idiot." Sakura commented as she walked into the school building. Meanwhile Naruto and Sasuke still sat there. Naruto rubbed his head for a bit, but soon returned to normal.

"So what do you think of Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked with a goofy grin that never seemed to disappear.

"She's different."

"So am I."

"But she's no fool." Naruto nodded his head in agreement until it clicked.

"Did you just insult me, bastard?!" Naruto was just a bit too late as Sasuke had already started walking. He chased after him with anger seething from him. As the two entered, lunch was finally over; people were pouring in from the lunch area. A certain blonde haired girl immediately found Sasuke in an instant.

"Where were you Sasuke-kun?" Ino said as she weeded her way through the crowds towards her god-I mean Sasuke. "You weren't with us."

"Did you miss me, Ino?" Naruto asked with fake enthusiasm.

"I think I just heard a bug buzzing, oh well, so where were you Sasuke?" Ino pleaded. Naruto inwardly sighed. That woman seriously was annoying beyond all reason, and in Naruto's mind had no redeeming features.

"Does it really concern you where I sit at lunch?" Sasuke asked with a sigh. Ino loved Sasuke more than anyone else at school. Hell, at one point she paid another girl to attack her, just so Sasuke would come in and save her.

"Of course silly." Ino said as she tried to make her voice sound all high and cute. "You always have to number one Sasuke-kun. If you start hanging out with _certain_ people, things will change." Sasuke could almost hear Sakura's name when Ino mentioned certain people. It reminded him that he had forgotten to confront Sakura about those rumors. With that thought in his head, he completely disregarded Ino and walked towards Sakura's locker hoping to catch her.

"I think you've just been burned, Yamanaka." Naruto said between his fits of laughter. Ino just stood there fuming a bit.

"Shut the hell up, Naruto!" She said before curtly turning and walking down the hallway intent on finding what Sasuke thought was more important than her! As Ino turned another corner heading to a different part of school, she saw him heading toward _that_ girl. He currently was talking with her at her locker. Ino couldn't hear their conversation, but Sakura had a wide smile on her face. Her heart felt like it was being ripped to shreds. Her worst fear had come true, Sasuke had fallen for another. At least that's how it looked like from the outside.

* * *

Hinata was currently on one of the infirmary beds.

"Where am I?" Hinata thought as she looked around to find a pink haired girl leaning over her bed.

"So you're okay."

"What happened?" Hinata thought as she faintly remembered being really close to Naruto and her heart beating really fast.

"You fainted from being in close proximity of Naruto-san." Sakura stated as a matter of factly. Immediately Hinata turned tomato red again. "Don't worry. I won't tell anyone that you like him."

"How did you know?" Hinata said as she started to push her fingers together like she always did when she's nervous.

"Like I told you, just because I don't hear doesn't mean I can't listen." Sakura said as she put her tapped her headphones currently around her neck. "Plus you were staring at him all through lunch. How long have you liked him?" Sakura asked with a warm smile. Hinata looked at her surprised.

"Since freshman year, he's always been able to what I always wished I could." Hinata said as the tomato red slowly fading to a light shade of pink.

"I hope it works out well." Sakura said with a smirk on her face. Hinata smiled too.

"So do you like someone Sakura-san?" Hinata asked with a curious look on her face. Sakura laughed in response.

"Well, there was this one boy in the snow country who was really cute, but that is obviously not going to work out." Sakura let out a light laugh and Hinata soon joined in.

The two girls talked lightly, but before long the lunch bell rang signally the end of lunch. Hinata having classes opposite from Sakura separated ways from her, but the cheerful mood she had didn't. Hinata though kind never really had a girl friend. She had some friends, but they were guys and weren't exactly as sensitive as a girl could be. Her day couldn't get any better as Hinata saw it. She was able to stand up to Ino and not only defend her new friend Sakura but sit and talk with her in an almost public place and the best of them all, she had finally talked to her precious Naruto.

* * *

In all honestly, Sasuke and Sakura's conversations had just started today, but to high schoolers that was nearly a decade of time and apparently enough time to pronounce them a couple. In fact much like the one they were currently having, it was simply full of cryptic messages from Sakura to Sasuke.

"Haruno." Said girl popped her head out from behind her locker door and looked to see Sasuke approaching her. People around them who seemed to be awfully observant for once noticed this.

"Hi Uchiha-san. I didn't realize we were on a no suffix basis." Sakura said with a sly smile as she pulled out her A.P. English book for fifth period. As he came upon his locker, Sasuke looking mildly interested looked in her locker to see that a CD holder no longer stayed there. His suspicions grew further. "Did you come to search the contents of my locker?" Sakura said as the grin on her lips slowly spread out fully.

"No, but I just saw Ino and she didn't have a scratch on her."

"Your point?" Sasuke glared at the girl obviously frustrated.

"Why would you let rumors circulate about you that aren't true? If you don't deny them, people will believe they are true." He glared at her as if she was a nitwit without even an ounce of sense in her body. The look made her let out a light laugh.

"I obviously don't care." Sakura said as she shrugged and shut her locker and headed off towards her A.P. English class. Sasuke stood there a bit baffled before walking towards his own class not bothering to bring his own books to class. He'd just ask a girl and she'd surrender them and accept the real punishment. They were so easily manipulated.

"I don't care…" He mumbled as he let out a light chortle. Suddenly Naruto's voice echoed through the emptying halls.

"HOLY SHIT, SASUKE BASTARD CAN SMILE!" Sasuke's eye twitched as he looked over towards Naruto and chased him down planning on tar and feathering him before decided that that was far too nice. He would have to go into darker ways of death.

* * *

Sakura sat in her A.P. English class when suddenly Ino walked in and told her teacher something.

"Ms Haruno, the principal wants to see you." Sakura hearing the jest of what he said through her headphones picked up her bag and walked to the door with Ino trailing behind her. They made it halfway down the hallway when Sakura paused and looked over her shoulder.

"So since when are you the principal, Yamanaka-san?" Sakura said with a dull expression. The bruise on her cheek seemed to finally start hurting as Sakura was lightly scowling to Ino's pure bliss.

"I just wanted to have a little chat without an audience. I feel that making a private announcement will make a better impression. Plus a public one might ruin my image." Ino said as she flipped her hair for good measure. Sakura sighed and turned to face Ino full on.

"If it's that important to you, go ahead." Sakura said with a sincere smile. It surprised Ino; and for one moment, a strange flicker of guilt flashed Ino's face; but it soon disappeared.

"Yo-you see, when I told you to stay away from Sasuke I meant it. I love Sasuke-kun more than anyone else in the world, and he treats me different from every other girl just like you. We're childhood friends. I know him better than anyone else. Give up." Ino said as her face held a determination that could move mountains. Sakura's eyes softened to the girl. It was a strange feeling.

"I'm sorry." That was all Sakura said as she walked past Ino. Ino on the other hand felt as if she had been frozen solid for some odd reason. It was such a strange reaction from Sakura. What was she apologizing for? For falling for Sasuke? Was she saying sorry she can't? Or what she apologizing for Ino's devotion? The last option though thoroughly stupid in Ino's mind seemed like the most likely one though Ino would never admit it. Ino couldn't really comprehend the whole situation and was a bit confounded as she stood there. The bell soon rang which woke Ino out of this stupor. Though somehow all the anger she had been planning on taking out on Sakura seemed to change into a sadness.

* * *

After Ino's little visit Sakura's classes ended without a hitch. Sasuke had thankfully had classes on a different level along with Naruto so the rest of her day would be filled with silence. Not that she minded the company of Naruto or Hinata, but Sasuke thought that Sakura was some sort of novelty, and obviously him being around her directly meant Ino being angered, a simple equation, but Sakura would preferable not have milky hair but otherwise was indifferent with Sasuke. She smiled as she walked out the front door of the school. 'How did I become so popular overnight?' Sakura questioned as she headed toward the bike rack with curious eyes all on her. It felt awkward, but she was soon distracted as she saw Hinata waiting for her outside.

"Are you planning on following me home too?" Sakura said with a smirk on her lips.

"I-I was just wondering.. if w-we could hang out." Hinata asked with a worried look on her face before bowing. Sakura surprisingly bent down and looked at her again.

"Is this your favorite position, Hyuuga-san?" Hinata immediately stood up straight and let out a light laugh. Sakura laughed along with her. "I'd love to hang out sometime." Hinata smiled and walked over towards a large Mercedes where she climbed into the passenger seat along with Hyuuga Neji who was in Sakura's math class.

"I had no idea they were related…" She mumbled as she walked over to her bike and unlocked the chain and put it in her bag. She hopped on and started to ride away. Sakura sighed as she reached her empty house and walked up to her bedroom. Immediately she plopped down on the comfy bed. "And here I was thinking I would have an eventless Junior year." Sakura let out a light laugh. "I guess it does make things more interesting… things sure do move fast in high school. I go from invisible to everyone's favorite eye candy. Lovely."

* * *

Sakura is a bit more mature because of her experience.

SPOILER KIND FOR THE REST OF THIS FICTION: Because she moved alot more, she got picked on for her forehead before being accepted. After years and years of switching schools, people picking on her over trite things were easily broken down and dealed with according to how she thought fit. Her peronsality though because of that got a little warped. She now comes off a bit more frigid since she no longer has to pretend to be normal and fit in with everyone to keep her relatives from thinking she was too strange to keep. Do you get it?

Yeah, I changed people's personalities a bit, but not really. I merely took their dominant trait and exploited that one more so than their real traits. I made them more one dimensional cause in high school, most people are shallow and as such more one dimentional, but as they break out of their shells like in my story, you start to see the more rounded side of them. :3 ((but Naruto will stay the same, cause he can be well rounded and still be an idiot.))

So Review and Tell me what you think. :3 I might just keep this story as it is and never finish. Not really sure. :3


	2. The Ramnifications of Ditching

Thanks for the two revies I had gotten. It made me smile. I have a request of the two people who did review or others if they want to review as well. (I hope) Who do you want Sakura to filter through next? It sounds weird, but that's pretty much what she's doing.

* * *

A soft exasperated sigh escaped her lips as the pink haired girl looked at the blinking red lights. It was nearly five o'clock in the morning. Her alarm was sure to turn on any moment now, yet the girl looked as though she didn't need it. Her eyes held a thin gaze of a sleepless night upon them, and a light shadow was underneath her eyes. She blinked a bit, for her eyes hurt. She looked out at the window as the rays of morning seemed to be slowly creeping into the once dark night. "Somehow I'm still not tired…" The girl said as she rubbed her stinging eyes. Another sigh escaped. Her head hit in the pillow with a light thump, and closed her eyes. It was at this convenient moment, her alarm clock wanted to come to life and sound an annoying beeping sound.

"Shit." She cursed as she picked up the alarm clock in frustration and opened her window before daintily chucking it out of her window. It crashed down and thus, silenced the machine. As she peered out, the sun's first gazes just decided to show its face upon the sleepless girl. Her eyes stung from the bright light and immediately she moved backwards tripping upon something she couldn't identify at the moment. She fell on her bottom and officially hated this day/night. "That settles it." The girl closed her eyes and let out one final sigh, before getting up. She pulled on her favorite pair of cargo pants over the boxers she wore to sleep every night and a jacket over the shirt she always sleeps in. She pulled her headphones from her night stand and put them over her ears. She slipped her wallet and keys into some random pocket before exiting the house.

"What I wouldn't kill for a non broken CD player…" Sakura said as she walked across the street slowly wandering through the neighborhood. The neighborhood that she lived in was pretty rural. Each house was almost exactly the same, with minor details that somehow 'set' them apart so much. Some had put up different mailboxes. Some had painted their house an offset white or a light blue that looked oh so different from the other tan houses that were all straight in rows. There were no yards since the road that Sakura lived on lead into town where the establishments would lie. There were two directions to go. Follow the path to civilization or head more into the maze of houses eventually leading to an unknown world.

"Two roads divulged, and I-I took the one less traveled by." Sakura mumbled as she headed down the streets of the unexplored houses. As she went deeper and deeper still into the forest of houses they became grander with larger yards and more architectural value than the others just a little ways up. They became grand beauties with large trees in front and lawns that seemed like something out of a catalog, houses where children could play and grow up happily without knowing of the dark dangers that lie ahead in their lives. If it weren't for the early hours of the morning, she was sure that people would be driving down this road and ruining the peaceful quietness of the neighborhood. She almost danced down the middle of the street to a soundless music that played in her head for what seemed like forever. Her short pink hair bobbed as she moved about the clear roads with her eyes closed. Her movements were erratic and spontaneous, yet somehow it looked so graceful. Each and every move seemed like something that was set to a classical music. At first it was a waltz that transformed into an old English short of dance that slowly moved to only traditional geisha would do. Everything in all normalcy would never flow together did. It was a strange and beautiful sight. If anyone took a moment to slow down their lives and look at something like a girl dancing in the street, they would behold quite the beautiful sight.

Just as nature seemed to be relieving the girl's former dark attitude, the harsh sounds of civilization waking up seemed to break this peaceful world. She abruptly opened her eyes and looked up to see a car in the distance slowly approaching. It was sleek and black and barely made a sound, yet it interrupted the girl's beautiful music in her head. She moved on towards the sidewalk and hummed to take her mind off of it. No matter how wonderful the world was, sometimes things would ruin it. It was just another part of life as she saw it. The car slowly came by with tinted windows. It seemed like a rather expensive car than the ones that the owners on the current street she was on had. Her eyes were closed as it came by followed by a wind. At that moment, Sakura felt a pair of eyes for a split second boring into her skull. She brushed it off nonchalantly as she walked deeper. Lights slowly started going as she the pink hair girl strolled on by. Sounds of children and parents grew steadily louder. She bit her lip as she looked down the street concentrating on nothing but the never ending road as it seemed. Her eyebrows furrowed as parents emerged from vehicles slowly pulling out at different intervals of time. Sometimes sleepy eyed children would emerge by their sides. Either that or each of the parents would daintily put a kiss upon the forehead or cheek before the child ran up the street and turn the corner heading to some bus stop or something. No longer could Sakura take this feeling that was radiating from her chest. It was an uncomfortable feeling that didn't belong there.

She broke out into a run and turned to the immediate corner along with a bunch of unnoticeable turns and stretches. As she finally came to a stop, she crumbled to the ground completely exhausted. It seemed as though she had run for longer than ten minutes without a stop. She wasn't really keeping time to be honest; she just wanted to get away. It seemed Sakura had gotten her wish as the pink haired girl was a least six miles away from her starting point and to top it off she was in an area that was completely unknown to her. In fact she was at an open large yard as it seemed filled with flowers and a small koi fish lake. It seemed rather peaceful and like a wonderful place, but it was surrounded by three walls with one open door and one wall leading towards a rather large home. It all looked very traditional Japanese and very expensive. Two words that lead Sakura to believe she had just wandered onto some very private property.

"Shit." Sakura said as she slowly moved towards the door. She was out of breath and on someone else's land along with being in a neighborhood that she no longer recognized. This bad 'early' morning to good 'morning' morning to horrid and possibly stupid 'late' morning wasn't exactly what Sakura had wanted when she thought of the idea of ditching late last night, when she found herself unable to fall asleep. "I'd say, 'things can't get any worse' but that would only make things worse…" Sakura mumbled as she slowly tried to exit this stranger's property. It probably looked suspicious as a small pink haired girl practically crawled out of the private garden.

* * *

Without a single person noticing, Sakura had escaped the garden and closed the gate seamlessly behind her. 'At least some cliché's aren't true.' Sakura thought as her thoughts were suddenly filled with images of Ino bullying her with such cliché happenings. At the thought, she let out a light laugh that slowly turned into a louder fuller laugh. It was at this moment that Sakura decided that despite all adversities, today would be good. Unfortunately, at this moment a long haired lavender eyed bow had been watching her from a window in the second story of the large Hyuuga estate. His ear was currently glued to a cellphone, yet his eyes were glued to a short pink haired girl who had just broke into the large Hyuuga estate.

"I'm sorry, Tenten." A girl's voice filtered into his ear with a crackled noise from bad cellphone reception as soon as he was done.

"You've made me late to school, since we're not going out. I hope you're happy." The girl seemed rather unhappy that this boy was cancelling something.

"Something more interesting just wandered into my lap." He said with an uninterested voice. Nothing was truly important to Neji. Things were only interesting and not interesting. He had no chance at becoming the Hyuuga heir, but even so his close relation by blood meant a large enough sum to let him life his life without ever working. Another date with Tenten after one just last night seemed less interesting than investigating why the strange girl who was popular over night had snuck into his estate.

"You're a real ass sometimes."

"Yeah, I know." He mumbled as he shut his phone before the woman over the line could answer. "But I don't care."

* * *

Sasuke had woken at four thirty sharp. He had put on what he grabbed first from the closet, before brushing his hair and teeth. Every morning was such a pain in the ass, he had thought. Since most of his relatives were dead along with his own parents, it was Sasuke's job to take care of the business. Early every morning, he had to work an hour long shift before getting to school and every late night, he had to work from nine to midnight. His high school life was anything but wonderful. As soon as he was done getting ready, he headed down the stairs and headed towards his car. Everything was the same as it always was. Everything was going to be just as painfully boring as the next, or so he had thought until his black car had driven by a certain pink haired girl walked by humming a tune. Her hair looked a bit messier than usual, but it was definitely the same striking pink color. He blinked for a moment as she passed on by. He looked back in the rear view mirror and as clear as day, it was the pink haired woman who was suddenly everyone's favorite rumour.

As he arrived at his work, the normal people kissed his ass. The normal work was waiting for him piled up upon his desk. The normal secretary who was always trying to win over his heart was there sitting her with her shirt slightly unbuttoned on purpose. The work was just as annoying and insignificant as usual. He let out a soft sigh. Nothing would change. He was sure. A teenager ditching school for just one day was perfectly normal. That pink haired girl was just another teenager trying to be different to fit in like everyone else. She just sucks at it. That's what Sasuke decided to believe. That's what he'd always believe or so he thought.

* * *

Sakura after finally catching her breath wandered down a bit to a small park that was a bit hidden, but looked like it was open to the public. It had a swing set with a worm type of jungle gym piece that sat nailed into the grass. The swings were set in the grass as well, but it was ridden down to dirt by people's feet. Currently the girl was sitting on a patch of grass a few feet down from the swings. She was looking up at the blue clouds as she often did at lunch at school. It held a relaxing quality that could put her at ease. It reminded her of a time in childhood where children were allowed to be themselves rather that trying to fit in. In childhood things were easier.

A slight draft blew through the air sending a chill through the girl's thin clothes. Her normal red jacket was rather worn and had thinned out from its original thicker form. Plus she wore only her pajama shirt which was pretty much just a tank top. She shivered a bit, but sat there peacefully. It seemed like she had gotten so far from her house that the sounds of the city didn't even reach this part of town. She guessed that it was on the outskirts where only the rich and upper class people lived. "I wonder what sort of world this is."

"It's a lot tougher than the little world you live in." A deep voice said as a shadow loomed over the form of Sakura. The pose immediately reminded her of Ino's day of bullying which made Sakura let out a light giggle once more. Girls and their petty bullying ways were such a horrid cliché yet every school she went to had one. A pair of lavender eyes scrutinized her expression. "What are you doing?" The boy questioned as he tried to figure out the 'oh so interesting girl.' The girl shrugged not really knowing the answer. "That isn't an answer."

"Well isn't the answer quite obvious." Sakura said as she looked up to meet the eyes of a lavender boy. Her eyes widened as she sat up and looked at him with a different expression. Her eyes seemed to be digesting him and seeing into his soul which scared Neji just a bit. It was such an empty gaze that at the same time held a great depth. 'Such a contradictory way of thinking' Neji thought as he glared at the girl. Just as many of the other students in his class, they were abuzz about the woman's strange habits for the first week, but as nothing had changed, he immediately got bored and went back to other more interesting things. Yet here she was more interesting than anything in his life. Everything she wore was as plain as the woman in front of her. It looked rather plain and ordinary which is what one could not describe the girl. Her shocking pink hair stood out in a crowd along with striking green eyes. Plus the unusual habit of always listening to music or something as if it was her only source of life.

"You're not normal."

"I'm a complete freak." Sakura said in a sing songy voice that seemed to be mocking him in a strange way. He glared at her, but she seemed to disregard it completely. It was the same kind of disregard for his glare that drew him to his current girlfriend Tenten, but somehow the way this girl caught his attention was different. The feel she gave off was something that made him unconsciously want to leave. A little voice in her head was going off. Turn back. But for Neji, this meant that the girl could only be one thing-more interesting than he had ever imagined.

"Why ditch here?" He asked with curiosity clearly showing upon his face.

"Why not?" Sakura smiled as she pulled down her headphones. They had been on her head since she left her house. It was nice to let her ears feel the cold breeze blowing through—plus there was the fact that she could hear things more clearly now too. Now that they were off, the wind blowing through the trees made a soft whistling sound that went along the same harmony with the grasses' soft sound as the wind blew past it too. She closed her eyes as if listening to the soft symphony of sorts. Neji eyed her curiously wondering why the strange girl before him was now closing her eyes. It seemed like whatever she was doing was enjoyable as a perfect smile was on her lips.

"Are you ever going to answer one of my questions?" Neji plopped down beside her trying to hear or somehow see what the strange girl was seeing or hearing.

"You're ruining the music." Sakura opened one of her eyes to glare at the boy who now sat at her side before closing it to enjoy the sounds of nature.

"What music?" Neji said as he didn't even try listening. Obviously there wasn't any music. This small park was the midway between the end of his land the beginning of his neighbors. They had decided to just leave it there as a public park instead of having a feud over who it belonged to. Though it was rather close, it was still far away from the actually building part of his land or his neighbors. It was near impossible to hear any kind of music anywhere near here unless some street performer had decided to stain their good neighborhoods. As the wind picked up, the symphony of sounds was lost. It turned to harsh howls and ghastly screams of loneliness through the trees. She shivered a bit form the cold and furrowed her eyebrows in response to the end of the song and the raising temperature. The boy with lavender eyes just looked at her more strangely. Just a moment ago, it seemed as though she was perfectly happy. 'Was she bi-polar' wondered Neji. "This music gone?" He humored her.

"Yes, the music was interrupted." Sakura said in complete seriousness. He eyed her strangely.

"Will you answer one of my questions now?" Neji glared at the woman. It was indeed a good idea to cancel his date with Tenten and to follow this strange woman. Every action she did was more interesting than the rest; though something about him was a bit frustrated with her lack of response—even if that was part of why she was interesting. The girl just shrugged. It infuriated him further—another indirect response. Now he could see why Sasuke was following her all of yesterday. She loved to dance around the edge of things. That kind of thinking would truly infuriate the Uchiha which would have made Neji smile if not for the fact that is was infuriating him as well. "Why ditch today?"

"Cause I threw my alarm clock out my window." Sakura said as she let out a light yawn. It seemed like her lack of sleep was finally catching up to her now. 'Great, now that it's cold, and I'm with a stranger in a place I don't know, I get sleepy.' She tapped her cheek lightly to snap herself out of this sleepy trance, but it didn't help much as another yawn escaped her lips.

"That's an odd reason." Neji said as he stared at her confused at her answer. She yawned again before falling back into the grass. "You really are a strange girl. Most people have a real reason for doing things." He looked up at the sky, and then at the girl. His eye twitched for a moment as the interesting girl had fallen asleep in the grass. With the wind howling and in itchy grass that was so disgusting to fall asleep in, the girl had fallen asleep as if it were the most comfortable substance ever. "As a penalty for not answering my questions, sleep here." He got up to leave just as the girl shivered and twitched a bit in her slumber. The wind blew furiously. In fact it howled and howled like it had it out for this small girl who happened to be so strange and interesting. "I'm only doing this, because you'd be less interesting dead." Neji said as he glared at the girl before draping his jacket over the girl like a blanket. "If you end up dead, it's your own fault." He said as he found his way back to his large estate shared by his cousin. As he reached the large warm estate, the pocket of his pants began to sound. He reached in and picked up his phone.

"Are you even coming to school?" Tenten's voice filtered through the phone unevenly—bad cell phone connection.

"I'll be there soon."

"Was it as interesting as you thought?" Tenten asked a bit irritated.

"Yep."

* * *

Sasuke looked up as Neji walked into the cafeteria. Obviously he had been ditching school again. For the first four hours of school, he was gone. Not that it matter to Sasuke. It was normal for Neji to disappear every now and then. Sakura on the other hand was gone today and that meant that nothing but monotony was for him today. The strange occurrence of Sakura on the road was no mistake. The girl was ditching today. Maybe she was just as normal as every other girl. Nothing would ever change his life. He was sure.

* * *

Sakura awoke—when—she wasn't sure—where—no idea—how she was hungry. Her stomach was rumbling when she woke up. She felt wonderful though which was surprisingly. Sakura was sure that she had fallen asleep in the middle of a park with a fierce wind. She should have been shivering. It was then she noticed a large black jacket lying on top of her. "Oh." She picked it up and put it on. It was warm and rather large. She figured it belonged to Neji, Hinata's cousin. She looked up at the sky. It seemed to be setting. Unfortunately it meant that it was getting late which isn't good for a girl who is both lost and confused as to where she is. She shook out her pink locks hoping to remove all traces of grass. "It seemed like a good idea…" She mumbled as she walked out of the park and headed down the street utterly confused. "Where the hell am I?" She wondered as she tried to remember what course she had taken.

She wandered about taking different turns here and there hoping to get right on track. In the end, she ended up back at the park again. She sighed and decided to just walk towards the direction she had come. Her stomach grumbled loudly as she wandered about. "I really hate today…" She said as the same car as that morning strolled on by. The window of the car rolled down as a familiar voice came through the window.

"Haruno, what the hell are you doing here still?" Sasuke said angrily.

"I'm having a picnic." Sakura said as her stomach growled. Her mood seemed to be not so great. She said sarcasticly.

"Someone's in a great mood, not so cryptic now?" Sasuke smirked. So it was all a façade he thought.

"Give me food…" She said obviously brushing off his comment. Her mind was solely focused upon acquiring food.

"What?"

"Food…" Sakura mumbled as she rubbed her stomach. He stared at her strangely but unlocked the door. The hungry girl climbed in and buckled her seatbelt. Her stomach let out a loud rumble and Sasuke stared at her and then it a couple of times. He seemed to be in disbelief. "I'm really hungry." Sakura replied as she rubbed her stomach that sounded like it was eating itself.

"Did you not bring food or something?" He said as he drove down the lane.

"I kind of just wandered here on a whim." She laughed uneasily as her stomach growled again.

"That is foolish. You'd have ended up worse if I didn't drive by."

"Blah. I'm hungry…" Sakura said as she chewing on one of her nails.

"I get that already. We're here." Sasuke said as he parked his car in front of one of the many large estates that Sakura was wandering by before.

"Food…" Sakura mumbled as Sasuke led the way out towards his house. Sakura walked in not really caring where she was. Her hand was rubbing her stomach still. He supposed that even girls have a limit to keeping up their images. He opened the door for her, and the girl stumbled in. Sasuke followed her surprised by her lack of reaction. All those who entered his house were normally struck by shock of its enormity and value. Sakura's mind was fully filled with the idea of getting food into her stomach. He slowly guided her towards the kitchen eyeing her carefully. Sasuke was looking for any kind of wonder or amazement towards his home. Even if she was used to this kind of atmosphere, the girl should still have been surprised, but not a reaction could be seen. As they entered his kitchen with marble table tops and the mahogany cabinets, her eyes finally widened at just the smell of food in there.

"There should be something in the fridge. I don't really eat here, but the servants keep it stocked anyways." He leaned against one of the marble counters and scrutinized as the pink haired girl practically skipped across the room with glee towards the fridge. Immediately the girl opened it. There were pre-made sandwiches of all kinds along with snacks all packaged for Sasuke to take at any time. Each one was labeled with a day and Sasuke's name. It seemed like the staff cared for him enough to make something like this nearly everday.

"Don't you eat these?" Sakura asked with confusion as she pulled out the one labeled for today.

"Not really." Sasuke replied as he looked up at the ceiling as if it were the most interesting thing in the universe. He heard approaching footsteps and looked down to see an angry expression on the pink haired girl's face. It was the kind of face she had made before smacking Naruto, but Sasuke realized this a bit too late as Sakura punched him clear across his face. He glared down at the girl rather surprised at her violent reaction. "And what was that for?" He grumbled through his teeth as he very nearly hissed at the girl with anger. Sakura just turned her head and looked off before un-wrapping her sandwich and taking a bite.

"I just felt like hitting you in the face." She said as she swallowed a gulp of food. "It has a big red target." She said in her sing songy voice that confounded the Uchiha once again.

"You enjoy hitting random strangers." He glared at the girl both out of frustration and for the fact that the woman packed a punch. " I hardly know you."

"Yet you've given me a sandwich." She smirked as this left him speechless for a moment. " Sakura walked out of the kitchen and looked at the rather large waiting room she had come through. It had great decorations and paintings upon the walls along with a winding staircase nearby in a corner. Everything was perfect in place. "Do you live here?" Her eyebrows furrowed together. Sasuke snapping out of his speechlessness immediately smirked. 'Finally that woman does something normal.' He smirked. 'She is just going to be another one of them now that she can see.'

"Yes." Sasuke smirked. "I own this house and as such everything in it." Now the girl would immediately try to gain his affection, and things would be normal—just as they ever were.

"No, you don't." Sakura's eyebrows managed to get closer together causing a crevice line to form on her pale face. She bit her lip in frustration as she walked over and touched a piece of furniture. Sasuke scrutinized her every action. Her words clearly stated that she was in denial, and her actions matched it perfectly as she trying to see if it was real—but the one of her voice was a grave one, as if she were pitying him.

"Yes, I do. I am the heir to the Uchiha industries grand fortune." He glared at her back wanting to see what this girl's strange expression would be. Her fingers began to trace a thin long mantel table just behind the sofa. The wood was a warm mahogany with a satin red cover on it. Upon that was a gilded candle holder along with other ornaments. Her fingers traced lightly upon the wood slowly feeling the soft satin texture under her fingertips. She raised both hands to either side of her head and began to rub her temples as if having a huge migraine. "Is it that hard to believe?" Pride dripped from her words as he moved ever so slightly towards the girl at an angle that allowed him to look at the pink haired girl's expression; just as he was doing this, said woman turned her head to gaze at the man in question. Her hands dropped, but one remained to finger upon her lips as if she was worried about something. That something seemed to be Sasuke.

"But you don't live here." Her bright green eyes held an emotion that Uchiha Sasuke was not expecting. Her eyes held a sad pathetic gaze that looked so familiar—but the sadness overpowered everything.

"Stop repeating yourself." Sasuke said as a strange wave of anger seemed to be growing within him. Sakura looked down at the ground as if already having anticipated such a reaction. "I live here." Sasuke said through his teeth once more. It was strange. All this girl had to do was one thing that he didn't expect, and suddenly his anger and interest were at its peak. 'Christ, I only met her yesterday.' He tried to remind himself, but her every action always seemed to be the opposite of what she would say. It was like a living breathing contradictory statement. "Can't you be normal?"

"Oh, I'll try my very hardest." Sakura said in her sing songy voice as she suddenly decided to return to her sandwich, and took a large bite. As fast as the anger had come, the girl had changed the conversation that swiftly.

"There you go again, little cryptic statements." Sasuke smirked.

"Here you are, somehow saving me by stalking me." The girl smirked in return and took another bite of the sandwich; nearly half of it was devoured completely.

"There you are, the girl I've only really known for a day."

"Here I am." Sakura chirped as she took another bite.

"There you are." He watched her in silence as she finished eating the sandwich. This woman was sent by his dead parents to haunt his very existence. She was an enigma that needed to be solved, yet it was an impregnable fort. "A futile effort…" He mumbled thoughtlessly. Normally it took him a day to figure out a person, before they became normal to him and quite boring. Even his best friend who was spontaneous by all means of the word was a bit boring after a while. His only good thing was that he wasn't easily controlled much like the pink haired woman in front of him. To distract him from his slightly dizzying thoughts, he glanced at the clock. It was very nearly eight o'clock—time to jump ship and go back to that hell hole full of ass kissers.

"'You late for a very important date'?" Sakura quoted as she glanced up at the clock as well. He sneered at her childish comment.

"I have some work to attend to. I'll drive you home now." Sakura nodded as Sasuke led her back outside towards his car. He walked over to the driver's side, and Sakura climbed into the passenger's seat as she had done before. "Where do you live?" Sasuke said as the pink haired girl buckled her seat belt while Sasuke left his undone.

"To be quite honest, I'm not sure. I go by land locations." Sakura said as she started to drum on the dashboard.** (1) **

"Hn." Sasuke said as he pushed the gas pedal. He drove by the houses slowly leading towards the houses of smaller and less property value. He glared at the pink haired woman who looked rather confused but enjoying the ride. Obviously directions were not her thing. They were heading more into town where the houses looked familiar, but none of them looked familiar enough to Sakura that Sasuke could just drop her there. It was rather annoying as the minutes seemed to be dragging on. His mind was on finishing his mundane work on time by getting there on time; rather than set upon examining the way the girl was looking at the warmly lit houses full of families eating and chatting and interacting. He looked at the clock in his dashboard to find it to be eight forty two. He no longer had time to dilly dally and find this strange woman's house.

* * *

There were two options: leave the girl right there to get further lost on her own, or drop her off after work thus taking her with him. As he stood at his office firm with the pink haired woman with gossip flying about them, he kind of wished he had chosen the first choice.

The woman's drab appearance only made his employees even more suspicious. Not only was the girl wearing cargo pants that looked faded and more suited for a mall than an establish business place like Uchiha industries, but there was a jacket draped around her that looked too large to belong to the girl herself. It was of fine material and nearly the same size as Sasuke's actual build. Plus she had slipped on her headphones that were clearly connected to nothing, yet she was humming making those around her think her crazy. Rumors were one thing at school, but rumors in the adult world that Sasuke lived in lead to unneeded publicity about the rich Uchiha Sasuke. He glared at her as the two entered the elevator along with a middle aged man who wore a thin gray suit.

"Haruno" He said in a harsh whisper. Sakura's headphones completely blocked out most sound, so Sakura did not hear this, but the man in the elevator did. Not only did they enter at the same time, walk into the same elevator, but he knew her name! What a scandal! **(2) **"Haruno." He said a bit louder hoping that the man wasn't listening, but knew that of course he was. The girl didn't flinch a bit and continued her happy humming. He lifted up one of her headphones which did catch the girl's attention. She pulled them down and lifted one eyebrow towards him.

"Yes?" The man eyed her curiously hearing her voice for the first time. The girl looked rather bored and yawned. Even though she had taken a good nap earlier in the grass, it didn't make up for the fact that she had been up for at least twenty hours. He just glared down at the gesture as the man in the elevator got out reluctantly as it reached the third floor. The man had wanted to observe the woman in order to spread the gossip already surrounding the Uchiha name.

"When the rumours appear in the tabloids about you tomorrow, it will be your own fault." Sasuke said as the door opened to the fourth floor. "Take the next one." He said to them and immediately he closed the doors. Sakura eyed him curiously.

"It's all my fault." She repeated with a sing songy voice as per normal, but something about it was more reserved as if immediately catching on to the more professional side of the Uchiha. A thoughtless phrase like one she had mentioned at his home popped up in her mind, but somehow she held it back. Sometimes speaking less was more powerful when trying to help someone. They soon reached the top floor as apparently the words of the boss traveled fast, no one dared to touch a button for the middle elevator. Sakura entered into a less busy area than the first floor was. This area had four desks in front of it before leading to two double doors that would probably lead to the area where Sasuke was heading. The secretaries looked up at the strange pink haired woman standing next to their ticket to a nice life. That woman was undoubtedly ruining their dreams of somehow marrying the rich Uchiha heir. Sasuke stomped by them not paying them the least bit of notice. Sakura followed him but stared at each of them with their own version of beauty. One was shy, others were bolder, but each seemed to have fallen for the boss of this great establishment. From the corner of his eye, Sasuke watched the pink haired woman taking this all in. 'Of course, the girl now realizes what sort of person I truly am,' Sasuke thought as he opened one of the doors and left it open for Sakura to follow.

"Come." He almost commanded. He would use the strange woman for at least one thing. The woman in the building would no longer throw themselves at his feet, for now there was a presumable girlfriend. Sakura surprisingly enough followed his order and closed the door before promptly slapping him across the face. "Of course there's a catch…" He mumbled as he rubbed his cheek. It seemed as though the girl was holding back before, for this slap was far more painful than the punch he had earlier received. 'I can see why Naruto was in pain…' Sasuke admitted to only his thoughts.

"You really ought to treat your employees as more than little ants upon which you can stomp." Sakura said as she strolled past him and promptly sat in his chair the boss's chair.

"That is all they are." Sasuke smirked in triumph. He was starting to figure out how the woman worked. "You should realize that you are sworn to secrecy about this. Few people know my true power over things." He glared at her as he leaned against the closed double doors.

"The path of success is indeed a lonely one." Sakura mumbled as she slipped her headphones back on and got up. "I'll go sit in the corner and stay out of your way." Sasuke glared at her.

"Again with those cryptic statements." He glared at the girl who walked towards a corner and closed her eyes and hummed. 'How could one girl be so infuriating in such a small way? She does what I want, yet it's everything that I don't want. You answer the questions that I never ask, and dance around the questions need answers.' Sasuke glared as the girl hummed her sweet tune before drifting into a light sleep. It would be the most infuriating yet calming work he had ever done at night. 'Now that woman's got me contradicting.'

* * *

Ino was waiting for him as she did nearly every morning. Other girls would do it too, but other girls weren't as lucky as Ino. Ino actually spoke to Sasuke and was considered one within the walls of that spectacuallar group with which he hung out. A bright smile danced upon her lips as the familiar black car that Sasuke always drove pulled up. Hopefully today would be another wonderful day. That pink haired she devil woman who was bewitching Sasuke (and in truth making Ino feel guilty for things she never felt guilty for) was not at school yesterday. Perhaps, the woman had miraculously been hit by a car or contracted a deadly virus. At least things would once return to normal, Ino would Sasuke's number one girl and Ino would never have that strange feeling in her chest pounding ever again. She would never feel the green horned rage of jealously that she felt whenever she glanced at Sakura for some strange woman. At least that's what Ino had hoped.

Sasuke parked into his spot and opened up his car door. There he stood in all his miraculous glory, but just as everything seemed perfect, the other door of his car swung open. Her eyes widened, wondering who had come with Sasuke before. Most of his friends lived down near Ino and not so far near the forest like Sasuke. Who in the world could it be? It was Ino's worst nightmare as a pink blob of hair massed from the car door. The painfully annoying blank look in her green eyes confirmed that the passenger in Sasuke's car was none other than the enemy whom Ino hated deeply. Gasps were heard all round them as the pink hair girl nonchalantly shut the door and walked away from Sasuke before muttering a simple "Thanks" in a sing songy voice. The pink hair girl passed by Ino and all the others in shock and entered the school building with the same air of nonchalance as ever.

"Sasuke…" Ino mumbled as Sasuke followed her suit and grabbed his bag out of his trunk before walking into the building rather bored as he always did. Ino shuddered as a wave of horror washed over her body. "No… you're mine." A tear felt as though it was going to fall, but Ino quickly wiped it away before trying to regain composure and follow Sasuke. Ino looked strong and perfect on the outside as she always did. From somewhere inside her mind, she could hear the voice of the pink haired girl smiling warmly and speaking the words that Ino dreaded to hear.

"Looks are deceiving." Ino shuddered once more.

* * *

Hinata had been slightly depressed all of yesterday. Her new friend had magically disappeared and was currently ignoring all her calls. **(3)** Even though Naruto had tried to cheer her up, by taking her out to eat ramen with him yesterday, she couldn't really enjoy it—not counting the fact that being alone with Naruto made her so nervous, she barely could breathe let alone eat. "Did I do something wrong?" Hinata mumbled as she climbed into her cousin Neji's car. Hinata was old enough to drive and had her permit but was too timid to drive the necessary hours yet.

"Did you?" Neji asked as he turned the key in the ignition and pulled out of their complex. Hinata stared at him strangely as he only had on a thin shirt without a jacket which was foolish since the winds were picking up lately making it colder. He noticed her obvious staring. "I lent it to an interesting girl I met." Neji's thoughts went back to the strange girl whom he had encountered just yesterday. He had checked on her at seven or so at night, but the girl was gone along with his jacket.

"Couldn't you have brought another?" Hinata said as she thought of the many jackets that lie within his closet doors. Neji laughed.

"Whatever." Neji said as he pushed down on the gas pedal a little harder than usual causing his car to shoot forward down the street. Hinata pushed her fingers together nervously. Neji was a nice cousin, but he didn't really seem to care about anything or anyone just the things that were interesting and things that were not. It was quite scary cause sometimes he had almost killed Hinata to make things interesting. She hoped it wasn't one of those times and shut her eyes tightly. Neji just laughed in response as he reved the engine. He darted through the traffic. Death defying things like almost hitting people or other cars was something that was interesting to Neji unfortunately. Within twenty minutes they reached the school. As soon as Hinata was sure that the car stopped she opened her eyes. The school buildings stood before them.

"Thanks." She said before climbing out of the car. Her heart was racing as she quickly ran into the building heading towards the restroom. As soon as the door was closed, she leaned against it and breathed in slowly hoping to slow her heart down. Sometimes it seemed like Neji did things just to try and kill her or make her think that he wanted her dead. It scared her. Hinata took one final deep breath before getting up and exiting into the halls. At least this life threatening morning had made her forget her friend Sakura's absence yesterday.

"Hinata-chan, Sakura-chan's back!" Naruto said as he bounded through the halls with Sasuke being dragged by the collar of his shirt. He pulled her into a hug of happiness.

"Eh?" Hinata said surprised by Naruto embrace.

"I thought that she died." He said with a wide grin that made Hinata laugh lightly. Even Hinata who loved the boy, knew that was a foolish thought. "But according to Sasuke-teme, she just got lost after ditching." A teacher glared at them lightly apparently hearing the key word of ditching. "I mean she got lost." Naruto said as he laughed uneasily. "Isn't that great news?"

"You overreact Naruto." Sasuke mumbled as he punched Naruto making him drop his shirt.

"What was—Hey it's Sakura-chan!" Naruto suddenly started waving towards said pink haired woman who looked rather bored with her headphones on.

"Hi Naruto-san." Sakura walked over towards them and pulled off her headphones. "Hyuuga-san, Uchiha-san." She smiled lightly.

"I heard you were over at Sasuke-teme's place." Naruto said as stroked an imaginary beard thinking of perverted thoughts. "So what happened?" Sakura punched him in the gut.

"That's improper to imply in front of ladies. Let's go Hinata." Sakura said as she grinned towards Hinata before turning and walking towards her classroom. Hinata ran after her while Naruto and Sasuke looked after their retreating figures with curiosity. It seemed like a real friendship was going to grow between the four strangers. A hyperactive boy, an overly shy girl, a bored cynical boy, and a strange girl that somehow managed to filtered through them.

* * *

**(4)** It seemed things were slowly changing. The social pariah Sakura now had friends who worried for her and who were slowly changing whether they knew it or not. The halls were emptying and nearly any students wanted to be late. As her new friends disappeared one after the other headed to their classes, Sakura walked towards her locker thinking thoughts that she abandoned at the beginning of the year. Sakura hoped things would go unnoticed. Sakura hoped that maybe it wouldn't be so bad to have an interesting junior year. Sakura kept that hope until Yamanaka Ino, her favorite cliché walked up and slapped her again. All of the other students had gone to their classrooms and most of anyone who was witnessing this knew that they should leave when Ino starts a fight lest they want to be in it as well. The two were all alone.

"Why do you wear those stupid headphones?" Ino pulled on them, but to her surprise Sakura was fighting back once more like she had done with Hinata. Her pale hand was firmly gripped on the cord.

"They were a present." Sakura said as she yanked the cord out of Ino's hand as if Ino were only a child. Ino fell forward a bit and faced the ground. 'Why her Sasuke-kun?' "I'm sorry, Ino. These I cannot surrender to you." Sakura reached out to put her hand on Ino's back to comfort her, but Ino's hand reached out and slapped it away.

"I don't need pity from you." There was pure rage in Ino's eyes. It was blind angry but more than that it looked sad to Sakura. Ino looked up at Sakura and reached back to slap Sakura again, but as it came to the proximity of Sakura's face, Sakura caught it and held it tight. "Let go!" Ino shouted as she reached her free hand to slap her only to have it caught as well. "Let go!" Ino struggled in the girl's grasps. "I'll scream!" Ino shouted as she struggled futilely. Tears started to fall from Ino's eyes. "Let go… please…" Ino's head and shrugged forward. **(5)**

"You really love him." Sakura said as she looked down at the blonde haired girl crumping in her arms. Ino nodded her head as the silent tears fell to the ground. "For that I'm sorry." Sakura let go of Ino's hands and wrapped her arms around Ino's small crumpled up figure.

"Why… you're not supposed to be kind… you're not supposed to be like this…" Ino mumbled as her tears continued falling slipping through her façade.

"Looks are deceiving." Ino flinched as she heard the pink haired girl's words in her ears resonating. The blonde looked up to the woman with blurried vision. No words were said. Sakura lead Ino towards the girl's bathroom and the two just stood there for a while. Ino was leaning over the sink the whole time trying to figure something about while Sakura leaned on a sink humming a sad tune while rubbing one of her temples as if frustrated with something. Time went by. How much? Neither one of them was sure, but they knew that soon students would fill the halls.

* * *

"Nothing'll change between us."

"I know."

"You know I'll win him over someday."

"Do you really want that?"

"Not sure."

"What if you don't want it in the end?"

"I will."

"What if there is someone better?"

"Is there?"

"That's evasive."

"Like you aren't."

"True. What if someone loved him more?"

"I'd give up."

"Even if he loved you?"

"If they really loved him more, he'd eventually fall in love with her."

"I see. You're a better woman than I."

* * *

With that the two went their separate ways as soon as the bell rung. The two weren't friends. One just knew that they could trust the other. The other knew they shouldn't trust anyone.

* * *

Sakura walked out of the girl's room just as the bell rung. She looked as people exited their classrooms. Eyes were glued to her as she heard descant whispers of a false relationship between Sasuke and her. People love to make things seem more interesting than they are. Oh well. She walked towards her locker and opened it and grabbed her notebook for A.P. Calculus B.C. It was then she realized that Hinata's cousin would be there. It'd be a good time to return his jacket. Sakura entered the classroom. Kakashi eyed her curiously probably wondering about why she was gone, but he didn't bother to actually question her. Her eyes drifted up towards where Neji always sat, and there he was sitting proudly at the back of the room. She approached it while having everyone's eyes glued to her before noticing the black jacket.

'Probably borrowed Sasuke's jacket or something.' They all thought but to their surprise and to Sasuke who walked in behind her she placed the jacket in front of Neji.

"Thanks." She bowed her head and walked back down the aisle to her own seat in the empty classroom. Sasuke looked just as surprised as everyone else in the room did. 'She was at Neji's…' His brows furrowed as he walked past her towards his seat. Sakura just closed her eyes and sighed. 'Here we go again…' She thought as she imagined the great rumours to come because of this. She bit down on her bottom lip and pulled her headphones up hoping to block everyone out. It seemed like every time something good happened, bad ramifications just had to come right after.

* * *

Class ended, and Sakura practically ran out of the classroom. 'I'd rather not face the millions of questions in the eyes of people who are too scared to ask them.' She thought as she closed her eyes and walked to her locker. Rumours didn't bother her, but Sakura did distinctly remember Hinata saying that Neji had a girlfriend. Now she would have two women who have it out for her; and frankly Sakura didn't want someone to dump milk or juice or something on her hair again. She let out a loud sigh to the surprise of the others in the hall.

She closed her eyes and headed towards her third period. Hinata watched as the girl who seemed so vivacious earlier—well not vivacious but happy and less bored than usual—walked around like she was utterly dreading something. It was as though Sakura had a premonition about some big storm to come; and even though she saw it coming, she could do nothing about it. What a helpless feeling? Hinata thought as she watched her friend look utterly defeated. Later on as she entered third period, she would find out why.

_"Did you hear?" _

_"Yeah, that Haruno girl not only slept with Sasuke, but Neji too in the same night!" _

_"What a slut!"_

_"I mean gosh! She gets to fuck both of the hottest guys on campus?! Neji already has a girlfriend!"_

_"Is she going to go after that whole group of boys?"_

_"Well, I heard that she was a well known slut at her old school, I heard it from a reliable source. So obviously she doesn't care whether they are taken or not!"_

"How do you know?" Hinata said as she turned back to face one of the girls gossiping right behind her. The girl just made a sour expression. "How do you know that she… uh.. w-well.. sl-e… did _that_ with N-Neji-sama?"

"Besides the fact, that she is a slut which everyone knows. She was showing off his jacket this morning and then gave it back to him saying 'Thanks for the fuck'." The girl said as she glared at Hinata like she was an idiot. Hinata knew that the girls who were in Ino's group of bully's normally lied, but something about this sent red flags up in Hinata's mind. There was the fact that indeed Sakura was wearing a rather black jacket this morning and later after second period she no longer had it; but more than that, Neji indeed had not brought a jacket to school and had mentioned that some girl had it. There was doubt in her heart, but Hinata dare not speak it.

* * *

Fourth period went by with rumors flying all around Sakura and Neji and Sasuke getting more ridiculous as each one went by. Thankfully it was lunch period and Sakura could get away from it all today, but unfortunately, she remembered that last night she had resided at her own home, and as such didn't pack a lunch.

"Shit." Sakura said as she ran a hand through her short pink locks. She pushed the door to the lunchroom that she so rarely visited. Her wallet was clutched in her hand as she walked into the short line for lunches. Everyone else seemed to have their lunch already. They were happily seated and had perfect views of everyone's favorite gossip girl, Sakura. "Oh well." She shrugged and started to hum a sweet tune as the line slowly progressed. She grabbed a tray along with an apple and a bottle of lemonade. The lunch server eyed her curiously as she presented her money. He stared at her like she was a foreign creature probably for the fact that she had been in the cafeteria a total number of one times. "I normally pack lunch." Sakura responded warmly as the man nodded his head and gave her change. She smiled and walked towards the trashcan humming the same tune as before. A foot stuck out probably meant to trip her, but Sakura just walked over it and slipped the tray on top of the trash. With apple and lemonade in hand, the girl opened the gym doors with all eyes on her humming a sweet tune. She walked out and suddenly a bucket full of water fell down upon her head. She lifted it up and gently set it on the ground, before taking off her headphones and wiping them off before slipping them into a pocket in her cargo pants. The whole crowd watched as the girl didn't react in the slightest.

A single girl stood up and looked at the pink haired girl's back. "Neji's taken." People snickered and laughed a bit, but Sakura just looked back at her blankly before turning back around and humming the same sweet song until it faded as Sakura exited the building. 'If that girl only acted like everyone else, she'd get along fine.' Neji thought as he looked at the cafeteria doors as if waiting for Sakura to return. His girlfriend who had had actually nothing to do with the prank was a bit annoyed.

"I can fight my own battles." Tenten mumbled as she looked at the girl who had pulled the prank on Tenten's behalf. The girl just smiled and pleaded that it was only to teach the girl some rules. Tenten sighed. She was more concerned that this little act had actually gotten him more interested in Haruno Sakura. For the most part, she was right.

* * *

Sakura walked outside and saw Hinata, Naruto, Sasuke, and surprisingly enough Ino. Ino glared at Sakura but looked away in a flash.

"Hi." As she got closer, the small group noticed that Sakura was currently wet. While she was still far away, Hinata stood up with a napkin she had from her lunch to dry her off somehow.

"What happened Haruno-san?"

"She probably instigated things." Sasuke said dryly as he popped a grape into his mouth. Ino seemed pleased at Sasuke's rather dislike at Sakura. Naruto on the other hand seemed rather displeased.

"Shut up, Teme! Are you okay, Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked as he stood up as well to meet her.

"Fine, I guess this makes it final." Sakura said as she disregarded Hinata and Naruto's concern by sitting down on the grass. She gripped the apple and took a bite.

"What's final?" Sasuke asked as he once again looked at the strange woman in front of him.

"I'm never ditching again." The four of them all gave the pink haired woman a strange look, but Sakura disregarded it. "There is one good thing from ditching though."

"I'll bite, what?" Sasuke asked.

"I didn't have to wash my apple." She grinned widely and laughed. Naruto and Hinata laughed lightly because they were half expecting a real answer while Ino just stared at the woman strangely. Sasuke smirked at the girl's answer. It was something that he expected, yet never expected of the contradictory girl who sat there. At that moment Sakura decided something. 'I can hope.'

* * *

**1. Sakura's school is only a thirty minute bike ride away, but she gets lost a lot so she wakes up at five thirty to make sure she has time to get lost for sure. LOL**

**2. No one knows that the two came in the same car. **

**3. Sakura didn't put her phone in her cargo pants. I left it out on purpose people…**

**4. Do you get the title now?**

**5. I had actually planned to do this a lot later in this, but since Sakura came to school with Sasuke her breaking point came a lot faster. Oh and just because Ino broke down, doesn't mean she likes her. **

High School is one big cliche as I see it, so if you think some of the bullying that is so cliche really does happen, so I had to put it in. Feel free to give me any advice, cause in each chapter something will happen to Sakura.  
"The nail that sticks up is sure to get nailed down first."  
The only problem is Sakura is already bent and impossible to nail down. :D Did you get that? I did. I'm hilarious.  
The reason I put this under humor is because this is smart humor. Yeah so REVIEW NOW! Please?


	3. A Night Known Only to Them

This chapter was all about showing the human sides of Sakura and Sasuke.

Also I do not own Naruto. If I did..... well Itachi would live. T.T I misses him.

* * *

This girl was an annoying mystery. It's almost as if she was about to tell you everything and nothing at the same time. Her words never had any forethought. She just spoke them, yet when she spoke, the words sounded like they held some greater meaning. She didn't really fit into any box that he tried to fit her into. She wasn't a slacker obviously, the girl was in A.P courses. She wasn't that into music since the girl couldn't name even one band. Everything that she looked like, she wasn't. Everything she loved, she hated. Everything she said, she didn't do. It was like everything she said was to confuse him, yet tell him everything he wanted to know.

She was infuriating.

Her looks if polished could shine brighter than many. Her pastel pink hair stood out from the crowd. Her bright green eyes shined brightly. Her skin was a pearly lily color that contrasted with her shocking hair color and eyes. Even now with her wet bangs sticking to her forehead, and her wet clothes, the girl could look stunning. All she needed was help—help that she didn't want. The idiot was happily chomping on an apple that apparently was as wet as the girl in front of him was. There was a big grin on her face as she chatted with Naruto and Hinata and surprisingly enough Ino who had decided to join them today. The rest of the group had long given up trying to figure out why she was drenched in water. It was obvious that it wasn't purposeful. The water was too erratic—someone had probably dumped water on the pink haired girl. He unlike the others was going to figure out why the pink haired girl was wet along with other things. 'Sakura is just like everyone else.' He repeated in his mind as he thought of ways to question the pink haired girl.

"You know if you acted more friendly like now and less frigid, people wouldn't hate you." Ino said blankly as she was playing with her long hair.

"Is that so?" Sakura smirked as she finished off her apple and threw the core with all her might towards a bush nearby some trees.

"Who knew that you liked to pollute the earth?" Ino smirked. "I can use that against you."

"Yamanaka-san is right." Hinata chimed into the conversation. "You shouldn't just throw your trash everywhere." Sakura smiled warmly at the girls.

"I gotta agree." Naruto nodded his head vigoriously while Sasuke just gave her a strange look. He was going to figure her out.

"Well think of it this way, where does trash go?"

"A trash can." Naruto blurted out obviously not getting it. Sakura slapped him upside the head for his pure stupidity. "Ow!"

"It ends up in a landfill to rot in the ground, but if we give it back the seeds in the core of fruits, we get more trees." Sakura just smiled while the rest of the group stared at her strangely.

"You're just being lazy." Sasuke smirked.

"Just a little, but my answer sounds so much better." Sakura made a face at Sasuke. "Joy kill." Hinata laughed.

"Enough with the stupid talk, I want to know why you drove Sakura to school today." Naruto said as he snickered as if thinking dirty thoughts. Ino looked away to the side trying to look uninterested, but the loud thump in her chest said otherwise. Hinata held her breath as a different question similar to Naruto's filled her mind. 'Neji-sama…' She thought as she eyed Sakura curiously. Surprisingly enough, Sasuke also was looking with curiosity as if anticipating what sort of answer this strange girl would say. 'Will she spoil my reputation or her own with Ino here? It's time to finally figure you out.' Sasuke thought triumphantly.

"Well, Haruno why is that?" There was anticipation dripping in his voice as he gazed at Sakura.

"Honestly, you continue with calling me without suffix." Sakura said with a sigh as she leaned back a bit and rested on her arms for support to keep her up. "I ditched school and got hungry." Sakura smiled as she lain down completely onto the ground giving her arms a rest. The rest of the group stared at her like she was an idiot.

"Another strange answer…" Ino rolled her eyes. "If you don't want to talk about, don't."

"Mhmm" Sakura said as she closed her eyes.

"Jeez, Sakura-chan, I was at least hoping to get an answer out of you. Sasuke-teme wouldn't tell me a thing." Naruto glared at Sasuke as he spoke that.

"If you fall asleep in the grass, you'll catch a cold." Hinata said as she tapped her pink haired friend on the head.

"Guess I'm getting a cold." Sakura said as she turned on her side away from Hinata.

"Not to mention, you're wet." Hinata said as she grabbed a lock of the pinkette's hair and squeezed. Drips of water fell out onto the pink haired girl's face. "You'll die from pneumonia."

"Boo hoo." Sakura said as she wiped the wetness away with her jacket before curling up into a smaller ball. Hinata sighed and stood up.

"I'm going then, bye, hope you don't die, Haruno-san." Hinata said with a smile as she gathered up her things.

"So soon?" Naruto asked a bit confused.

"I forgot to study for the Chemistry test." Hinata said as she stood up and waved politely before walking away.

"Oh shit, that's today! Wait for me!" Naruto quickly gathered his things and followed the pale eyed girl, but not before Sakura woke up from her nap to punch him in the face.

"If you curse in front of Hyuuga-san again, I kill you." Sakura shouted as she curled back into a ball as if tired. Naruto shivered a bit but kept on walking with Hinata.

"Who knew that you had the strength of a man?" Ino commented as she glanced at the wound on Naruto. 'Why didn't you ever hit me back?' The blonde wondered as she glanced at the peaceful looking pink haired girl. She was always so happy and peaceful even, when she was terrorized. The CD incident didn't bother her in the least. She had a playful happy expression when it was happening. She had a warm expression when Ino needed it. Sakura was the girl that could rival Ino. In what, Ino wasn't quite sure, but in her heart, it was there. "We are rivals."

"You and Sasuke?" Sakura let out a laugh. Sasuke eyed Ino curiously which made the girl blush a bit.

"We are." Ino said as she hit Sakura's head. "I'm leaving too. My crowd is probably wondering." The girl stood up. The loud thump in her chest told her to not leave the two along, but her pride didn't allow her to surrender anything. Giving her enemy time with him was the only way to prove that she was stronger than Sakura. It was a strange way and probably a self destructing way, but that path was the one she walked upon. As Ino pulled the door open, she glanced at the two over her shoulder. Sasuke was talking to her lightly, but Sakura still lain on the floor in a sleeping position. Ino closed her eyes and held in the tears. "We are rivals, Sakura-san." With that the girl opened the door and left the two completely alone on the field.

* * *

"What did you do to Yamanaka-san?" Sasuke asked as he looked at the girl crumpled into a small ball.

"I ate her." Sakura replied as she closed her eyes tighter as if annoyed.

"Call me crazy, but I doubt that." Sasuke glared at Sakura.

"You doubt everything I do." If her eyes could shut any tighter, they would.

"You lecture me on everything I do."

"You need more help than you know."

"So I'm the damsel in distress."

"That's one way to state it."

"I have everything I want."

"Everything is nothing."

"Why do you act different when you're alone with me?"

"I don't."

"You do."

"You don't know me."

"You don't know me." The pink haired girl opened her mouth to speak, but Sasuke continued speaking instead. "'Yet you've given me a sandwich.' I know." He scrutinized the girl as he often did. Their conversations were always around him, never her.

"Now it's my turn. Let me guess 'Why are you so frustrating?'" Sakura said as she gave up and opened her eyes and turned back to lie on her back. "That's easy, I'm not frustrating. You're frustrated that you're in denial." Sasuke glared at her obviously not liking the direction of this conversation. Every time he inched closer to finding out about the girl, the girl took a mile closer towards finding out about him. She already knew things that most of his friends didn't know, and he met her total of four days ago.

"Four days now."

"You keeping a scrapbook of me, how sweet." Sakura said as she glanced towards him. She met his harsh glare full on and was unaffected. He hated it. He hated her, and yet she intrigued him.

"You don't make sense."

"Humans are three dimensional so sorry to disappoint."

"Last night…"

* * *

Sasuke sat at his desk typing away on his computer. The list of things to do as a company owner was endless as it seemed—especially with a strange pink haired girl in the corner of his room drawing on his walls. At first the whole night was going smoothly. From nine to ten, the girl was asleep and the only sound in the room was the sound of Sasuke's fingers moving swiftly over his keyboard. It was nice strangely enough. The large office had a large desk at the very end of it, and before that was a long table where they were have staff meetings with the executives once a week. The whole floor of the building was quite literally his office minus the secretaries before it. The large room had a large t.v. in it, but with the work he had there was no chance to watch it. There was a small fridge under his desk full of energy drinks to keep his awake. There were windows lining the walls and plants at the four corners of his large office. The loneliness of it didn't bother him until the pink haired girl was in it. Her presence suddenly made it so much larger and so much lonelier. With another person in his now lonely office, it wasn't so lonely but still lonely. There was a quiet peacefulness about the pink haired girl before him. Something about the way she was then made him believe that she was normal just like everyone else.

It was perfect until one of his secretaries came in to bring in him coffee. The click the door makes when it closed was all it took for the pink haired girl to stir and wake up. Her bright green eyes opened up and looked out a bit dazed.

"Where am I?"

"At my office." Sakura looked up at him. He was steadily working on something rather important.

"Oh yeah." Sakura said as she let out a yawn. The girl stood up and stretched a bit. "Anything to do here?"

"Nothing unless you want to do secretary work." Sasuke mumbled as he took a sip of his coffee. The secretary walked out of the room and closed the door abruptly.

"I don't think they would enjoy my help." Sakura said as she looked around rather bored. "You got a computer to spare."

"Nope."

"Can't I use the one you're using?"

"No." The girl seemed rather bored and for fifteen minutes moved about the room. She went from one chair to another around the long table before sitting on the table itself. "Can't you sit still?"

"It's too quiet."

"What about this morning when I drove by you?" He took another sip of his coffee.

"There was music."

"No there wasn't."

"Just like Neji, you don't listen."

"I can hear fine." Sasuke said a bit annoyed. He looked away from his computer to glare at the pink haired woman sitting on the table.

"I didn't say anything about hearing. I said you don't listen." Sakura said as she lay down on the table and looked up at the ceiling.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"If you'd understand, I'd explain." Sakura said in her sing songy voice that annoyed him so.

"Are you calling me an idiot?" He stopped his typing for a moment and just looked at the girl spread out. Sakura started to count the ceiling tiles out of boredom.

"Did I say that?" Her sing songy voice chimed in as a smile dancing around the corner of her lips. The girl started to hum a sweet song that was unfamiliar to Sasuke.

"You are infuriating." Sasuke said in surrender as he returned to his typing. The song was slow and calming but slowly transformed into something fast and choppy. It seemed like the girl was changing songs in the middle of songs she was humming. As soon as Sasuke was close to figuring out the song, it would change. 'How ridiculously infuriating could one small girl in my office be?' Sasuke thought as he tried to focus on his work, but the girl's ridiculous song continued to infiltrate his mind and make him want to figure out the song. It was like a game and Sasuke was losing horribly. Finally he stopped typing and looked at the girl angrily. "Can you do something else?"

"Not sure…" Sakura said as she looked around the room rather bored. Suddenly the pink haired woman had a mischievous smile upon her face. She sat up and looked at Sasuke with a coy smile. "You got a marker?"

"Sure." He rummaged through his desk and pulled out a sharpie and tossed it at the girl. "Will this shut you up?"

"How many you got?" She caught it and smiled. He pulled out the box of sharpies he had pulled the one sharpie out of.

"This enough?"

"It just might be." Her smile worried him a bit, but his annoyance level wasn't very tolerant at the moment that meant that whatever shut her up was better than what she was going to do. The pink haired girl hopped off the table and walked up to his desk. She grabbed the box of sharpies and got to work. Immediately that should have set the flags off in Sasuke's mind. Sakura walked over to the right corner behind Sasuke, and started writing directly on his wall. She wasn't sure what she wanted to write, so she wrote something that she often did for fun.

'If you're reading this, you have officially signed over your soul to me. This is a legitimate contract and it is irrevocable except under the case that I say so, but I never do. Ha ha. You lose.' She wrote this line out from as high as she could reach to the bottom of the floor. At first, she was worried and looked over her shoulder at Sasuke wondering if he'd get mad. Fortunately for her, the boy was too wrapped up in his work on the computer to even notice the sounds of marker against the walls. After writing that trite phrase on one section, she wasn't sure what to do. She drew a monster that was hovering over a small little person that looked a lot like Sasuke only with bunny ears and fluffy tail. Underneath that, she wrote.

'I wonder when Sasuke'll notice that I just drew a monster about to eat him.' She smirked as she finished writing that. It was quite fun to draw whatever hell she wanted. Since Sasuke was in the room, most of the drawings featured him in a strange way with the only people she was familiar with in Konoha. She bent down onto her knees and drew below the monster and Sasuke a picture of herself eating Sasuke head. She wrote next to it.

'When I grow up I want to be zombie.' She smirked as she continued drawing. Sakura continued drawing and writing trite little phrases, some that said that she owned Sasuke, some saying that she ruled the world. She doodled on the whole back wall for she wasn't sure how long, but it was fun. Drawing was time consuming fun. It wasn't until she made it to the other corner of the room that Sasuke finally looked back at Sakura.

"What the hell are you doing?!" He shouted as he looked at his back wall now covered with drawings and phrases. His eye twitched as he looked at the pink haired woman who was now at the left corner of his room.

"Isn't that quite obvious?" Sakura didn't even look up from her work. It was currently a picture of herself doodling upon the wall with a picture of herself doodling upon the wall and well you get the picture. His jaw dropped as he looked at his wall. He almost laughed at the fact that they didn't reach to the top of the windows due to the lack of height on the girl's part, but that was covered by his extreme anger at that moment in time.

"Strike that, stop whatever the hell you're doing!" He commanded as he pushed back his chair and looked incredulously around his office.

"What time is it?" Sakura asked as she ignored his command and continued drawing.

"It's nearly 11:12, but that's beside the point!" Sasuke said as he stood up and walked over to the girl. "What have you done to my wall?"

"Are you blind?" Sakura said with a laugh. In her tiredness, the girl must have gone insane, because Uchiha Sasuke was furious and that was something one should fear.

"You're going to clean this off, Haruno." He grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her away from the wall, but the girl stood strong in her place. He pulled harder, but the girl resisted. He let out a sigh.

"I'm not done." Sakura said with a calm voice. He looked down at the girl confused. "I'm not done with my drawing."

"Are you serious?" Sasuke shouted as he glared at her.

"I'm not done." The girl smiled triumphantly as in disbelief his grip loosened and Sakura escaped. She skipped happily back to her place and in a flash continued her drawing.

"You're insane." He let out a sigh of frustration and seemed to surrender. He sat down and leaned against the wall just a little ways ahead of where the girl was drawing. The girl was so confusing. She had no sense. She was normal alright. She was a normal insane person. Who else would draw on someone's walls without thinking it is bad? Who else would wander not knowing where they were going? Who else would go to someone's house that they only knew for two days? Who else would get bullied yet play the bad guy? Who else would get break his cool exterior so easily?

"So you're the normal one." Sasuke half expected it to be the sing songy voice, but instead, she said it like it was sort of joke. Sakura shook the sharpie. It seemed to be out of ink. She bent down and picked up the box and pulled out a fresh one. "So it's normal it live in a house that you don't live in." She paused as she pressed the marker to the wall. "It's normal to question my every action." She pulled away and tilted her head looking at the drawing. "It's normal to work as an owner of a company and go to school as a student." She began correcting the mistake she had seen. "So it's normal to treat people like trash." Sasuke stared out vacantly looking out. He wanted to argue, but he couldn't. "So it's normal to try and classify everyone and everything to your own satisfaction." The two stayed in silence for a while as Sakura continued to draw on the wall. As Sakura finished it, she capped the sharpie and looked at it pleased. "So if you're the normal one, what is the rest of the world?"

"You're twisting it. I never said I was normal. I just said you're insane."

"Oh, thanks for the clarification. Shouldn't you get back to work?"

"Hn." Sasuke replied as he ran a hand through his hair.

"Since you're slacking off would you like to examine your revamped office wall?" Sakura asked as she scooted towards Sasuke before bending down and offering him a hand.

"Sure. It'll be gone as soon as the cleaning crew gets here." He took it and the small pink haired girl pulled him up. Sasuke walked up to the beginning of the doodles and read the soul line. "You know this isn't true."

"We'll find out once we're dead." Sakura said in her sing songy voice. He looked through each one. He rolled his eyes at some, yelled at Sakura for some, and finally laughed at them.

"You certainly have an active imagination." Sasuke said as he slipped back into his chair. "And you've managed to waste ten minutes of my time." He turned towards his computer currently showing a black screen. "I'll have to work extra hard tomorrow morning."

"So you work mornings and nights. You must love your work." Sakura said as she sat in one of the chairs and spun around rather bored.

"Not really."

"Why do you do it?" She asked as she kicked off the floor to spin around a couple times.

"I don't have to reason with you."

"Ah." Sakura said as she slowed to a stop. "So I guess you're not going to answer why you go to school if you already have a job, huh?"

"No." Sasuke said as he shook his mouse trying to bring his computer back to life.

"Ah. Personally I would hate to work in an office."

"Really 'cause you totally seem like the type." Sasuke said as he began typing once again. His voice was dripping with sarcasm.

"Hm." Sakura responded as she let out a light yawn. Her eyes drooped a bit and a dazed look came over her eyes. She yawned yet again and slumped down in the chair. It seemed like the only thing to do was sleep. 'If bored, sleep.' She thought as she nuzzled her head against the back of the chair as though it were a pillow. With that final thought, the girl slowly drifted off into sleep. Sasuke smirked as he glanced at the sleeping girl. 'Finally some rest.' He thought as he went back to his work. It was one of the few peaceful moments of the night and Sasuke was thankful that the girl had given up and had fallen asleep yet again. There was a peaceful atmosphere in the air. The only sound was the steady drumming of Sasuke's fingers against his keyboard and the occasional click of the mouse. A knock at the door brought the peacefulness to an abrupt end.

"Uchiha-sama, your shift is now over." The secretary's voice filtered into the room through the door. It was always her proud job to remind the Uchiha that his shift was over. He always worked so hard that he never kept track of time.

"Ah." He said as he looked down at the clock. He had barely gotten back to work, and he had to leave. Sasuke glanced towards Sakura's sleeping figure. "That's a problem." There were many ways to wake the sleeping girl. He was slightly curious as to what she'd do to each one of them. Many of them included throwing something at the girl, but he decided against them. "Oy, wake up." The girl didn't stir. "Wake up." He said a bit louder. The girl moved a bit but stayed asleep. Sasuke smirked as he was struck with an idea. He walked over towards her and leaned in close to her ear. "Wake up." He shouted. The girl jumped up startled. Sasuke grinned.

"That hurt." She said as she rubbed her ear. "You could have just poked me or something, jeez. Is it time to go?"

"Yes."

"Okay." Sakura stretched a bit before picking up her headphones that she had left in the corner while she was drawing. "Ready!" She said as she skipped to his side.

"You suddenly have energy."

"Only for now. Would you rather I collapse and you carry me down? Imagine that in your pretty little tabloids." Sakura said as she yawned for emphasis and leaned on his shoulder.

"I get it." He said as he pushed her off. "Who knew you were so annoying?"

"You don't need to know someone to understand them." Sakura had a sad expression on, but it quickly disappeared. Sasuke nodded and walked towards the door with Sakura at his heels. He stared at her strangely as the two entered into the elevator with two of his secretaries that had managed to gather their things quickly enough to leave with him. The other two watched sadly as the two elevator doors closed leaving their beloved boss with someone that wasn't them. The four of them stood uncomfortably in the small elevator, not due to the lack of space, due to the sheer awkwardness of the situation. On both sides of the Uchiha was a secretary whilst his pink haired guest had managed to squeeze behind them and currently stood in the corner.

"So, Uchiha-sama, who is this?" The secretary on his right said as she glanced curiously at the pink haired woman for what seemed to be the seventh time.

"Hn." He replied. The secretary looked discouraged. Again she glanced back at Sakura. The secretary on his left seemed to have worked here longer as she understood the unspoken rule with her boss.

"No questions. No answers." The girl mumbled briefly as she tucked a strand of hair behind her hair before glancing up at her rather rich and handsome boss. Sasuke arched his eyebrow as he glanced at the girl mumbling under her breath. Almost immediately the girl looked away and flushed rosy red cheeks.

"Ah." Sakura said as she disturbed this strange communication. A ding alerted the passengers that they had reached the seventh floor—almost at their destination. "This is my stop." The girl broke through their line and walked out of the elevator doors much to the surprise of a certain Sasuke Uchiha. His eyes widened in horror as she quickly ran down the halls.

"Shit." He ran out the elevator as his secretaries watched with wide eyes. 'That stupid..' Quickly he ran down the hall only to stop short as he saw a flash of pink. Turning around, he saw a pink haired girl leaning against the door to the stairs. Her eyes were closed and she was humming a sweet tune. "Haruno." He grumbled.

"You really don't like using proper suffixes." Sighing, the girl opened the door for him.

"Are you serious?"

"You're the one against the tabloids."

"Do you really expect me to go down seven flights of stairs?"

"No, I expect you to pretentiously go back to the elevators and lecture me as soon as we're out of the building." Sakura smirked. "I want you to go down this way. Why not save electricity?"

"That's not your real reason."

"Correct." He raised an eyebrow shocked.

"But you're not going to tell me the real reason."

"Also correct."

"What makes you think I'll do whatever you want?"

"Cause you followed me." Without listening for a response, the pink haired girl took off down the stairs. She jumped the first flight and called up to him. "At this rate, I'll run out before you can stop me." It left him speechless as he watched this crazy girl hop down and run down the stairs as if she were twelve years old.

"You were this close to normal… now you're miles away." Sasuke said as he motioned with his hand before walking down the stairs casually. As he reached the bottom, a pink haired girl was leaning against the wall looking rather bored.

"That's a good boy." The girl went on her toes and managed to put her hand on his head. She messed up this hair and smiled sweetly. It was an expression normally saved for Hinata and Naruto nevertheless it was there.

"You're strange."

"You're repetitive." Sakura curtly turned around, pushed the door to the last floor, and opened up to the lonely lobby. "Was that so hard?"

"Let's just get going." He mumbled as he strolled into the room. Once more all eyes were on his pink haired companion. Many rumors would start tomorrow, but none of that was his concern. The only thing that concerned him was the thought that maybe this pink haired girl would disappear someday. That would be his only concern for a long while.

The two excited the building and left in Sasuke's car just as they came. They seemed to have the same problem as before.

"You still don't know where the fuck you live. Dammit!" Sasuke cursed as he slammed his head against the steering wheel. The car started to swerve back and forth coming dangerous close to hitting a mailbox, but Sakura's sadness it did not. This feat of smacking his head against the steering wheel would have been dangerous if not for the fact that no one was on the road at 2:13 AM. During this dangerous journey, the pink haired girl who has no sense of direction was enjoying the song currently coming from the radio. This little action seemed to infuriate the Uchiha even more. Her pink hair swayed from side to side as she bobbed to the upbeat techno song. Sasuke glared over at the girl wondering what would be the best course of action. 'A. I can either murder her right now and be done with this while feeling possible guilt in the morning. B. I can leave the girl here and let her fend for herself… which means possible rape. C. I can kill her and dump her body. She'd probably come back to haunt me. D. I can jump out the window the car letting it crash effectively silencing her. E. I can murder her… wait that's the same as the first one.' "DAMMIT!" Pulling out his hair, Uchiha Sasuke finally made a decision. "I'll regret killing you possibly," He mumbled. Obviously, from sleep deprivation, Uchiha Sasuke had officially gone insane. At least that is how Haruno Sakura saw it as she shot him a weird look in response to his weird mumblings.

"Why don't I just sleep over?"

"Hn?"

"It'll be good for you to see how you live in a house."

"What's that supposed to mean?" It seemed like Sasuke had finally snapped back to reality.

"Just let me stay over. You have enough room."

"So you put this all together just to get into my place, huh?" Sakura rolled her eyes.

"You really think I'm enjoying this." Sakura shook her head in disbelief.

"Everything you've done is just to mess with me?"

"Oh yes, my whole entire universe revolves around the fucking great Uchiha-sama! I plan to baffle him with my strange ways to get his attention every day, because at the center of my fucking universe is the fucking wonderful Uchiha-sama. It is not as though I am tired or anything, it is not as though I would love to go home to my home. I would rather use some stranger's house who I barely know! That sounds so fucking great, right?!? Doesn't it?" She ran a hand through her pink hair obviously a little stirred up. "Can I please just stay at your house? I am tired. You are tired. Please."

"So you can get angry." He made a U-turn before heading towards his house.

"It's not like you're the only one here with emotions." Sakura said as she closed her eyes and began concentrating on the music.

"You're one to speak." Sasuke stared out at what seemed like a never ending road. "You never show people how you're really feeling."

"No, I just don't give people the satisfaction they crave." Sakura leaned back against the headrest. "Plus though you seem like somehow who knows everything on the surface, you're blind to what's around you."

"What's that supposed to mean?!"

"You want to classify everyone, but you never really look at them." Sakura sighed. "I'm going to stop this argument, before it goes any further. I can see you won't change."

"You say I know everything, but you're the one who seems to be oh so wise enough to spit out advice every five seconds." Sasuke pushed down on the gas and accelerated forward.

"That is because I've done this before." Sakura rubbed her temples. It seems like the two would never stop arguing. 'It's worthless trying to change someone who doesn't want to change.'

"How's that?"

"The internet can tell you pretty much everything you need to know." Sakura ran a hand through her hair and yawned. "I really am freaking tired right now."

"You not cursing anymore?"

"Shut the fuck up."

"Ah." For the rest of the twenty-minute ride to Sasuke's home, it was completely silent. It was a warm silence though. The atmosphere between them was a harmonious one as Sakura had once again for the third time tonight fallen asleep. It seemed like her only real talent was falling asleep. At least that is how Sasuke saw it. As he pulled up into his driveway, he had thoughts of shaking her awake or waking her in a manner that would result in the two angry again. Contrary to his thoughts, he just opened his door and slammed it. The loud noise immediately made the pink haired girl's eyelid flip up revealing jade green eyes looking wildly about. She reached for the handle of the door and swung the car door open. Immediately she looked towards the raven-haired boy who had been both her saviour and enemy.

"We ha?" Sakura said as she yawned. Though it was not exactly words, he understood them and responded with a nod. The girl exited the car and stumbled her way towards the Uchiha's house.

"You look like you're drunk."

"Shut the fuck up, I'm tired as hell." Sakura said as she rolled her eyes for what seemed like the hundredth time. He opened the door to his house for her once more that night and let her in. Without thinking he did as he normally did and climbed up the stairs towards his room. As he reached the top and headed towards the door at the end of the hall, Sakura spoke up.

"Where do I go?"

"I don't give a damn really."

"If you don't tell me, I'll just sleep in your room."

"I didn't realize you were so brazen." She flipped him the bird. He just laughed and opened the door to his room. He expected her to stop her ridiculous joke and leave, but to his surprise, the pink haired girl walked in and plopped down on his bed. Immediately the girl spread out before sighing

"Gross."

"What?" His voice shook slightly as he was surprised at Sakura's actions.

"I expected your bedroom to at least look and feel like you lived here. It doesn't. Please tell which part of this house, you really live in."

"We-!"

"Not now. In the morning, since I'm pretty sure I'll have to get up hella early to go to dumbass work with you." She nuzzled her head against the pillow on his bed.

"You're rather demanding for someone who is a guest." He listened for a response but all he heard was the breathing of Haruno Sakura evening out. "Fuck." He said. "What the fuck do I do now?" He whispered as he glanced at the girl sleeping on his bed. If his house cleaners saw him sleeping with a girl, they would immediately sell him out to the tabloids. He trusted them, but money easily buys people. He could always retire to a different room, but in a strange twisted way that would surrender to the pink haired girl. "Fuck." He whispered again. It seemed like his only good option was pulling an all nighter, which was actually quite a normal habit, what with his school work and job. With an exasperated sigh, the boy climbed down the stairs and walked into the kitchen. He took out some instant coffee and quickly made coffee.

As it hit 3:35 in the morning, if you looked into his house all lights would be out except for the kitchen where a raven-haired boy's face was light up by the light of a laptop. You would have also a cup of coffee sitting next to it. What would one such as Uchiha Sasuke be researching on this night? It seemed as though Sasuke had taken his dear friend Sakura's advice and looked her up on the internet. Currently he was waiting for google to load with his answers. He clicked the first one that popped up and as one would expect, it was a myspace.

"What the fuck is this?" He leaned in closer and looked at the pictures. There she was. At least he thought it was her. Her hair was considerably longer and it was styled in a way that flattered her large forehead. There was a light layer of make up on her face that highlighted the beautiful aspects of the already beautiful girl. She was dressed in clothes that resembled something that Ino would wear. This girl looked like one of the popular girls who fit in every way. "Who are you?" He wondered as he looked at the date. It had only 2 years ago that these pictures were taken or rather 'updated.' He smirked. "I knew it; you're just like everyone else." He scrolled down and looked at a single phrase she had written on the personal info box: 'I'm tired of being indenial.' Sasuke looked at the girl in the photo and looked at the girl he had met so far. They were nothing like each other. What had happened that had changed the girl so radically?

He closed it and opened up internet explorer once more. He typed in facebook. 'I mean why not? The girl once upon a time had a myspace.' He typed in her name and immediately he got a hit. He clicked on her face and looked at her page. **(1)** He clicked on her pictures and it was the same as the myspace only this time in every picture there was someone in it with her. Always next to her or sometimes holding her or other such things was a boy with red hair and aqua green eyes with rings around them. He had an angry sneer on in all pictures except the ones where he was looking at her. "So perfectly normal." He glanced at her status as it were: 'Sakura says that the closer you get the farther you really are.' "That sounds like her." He let out a light laugh. Somehow, he was talking about a girl he had only known for about three days. It seemed like she was the most interesting toy every invented. He scrolled down to the wall and saw at least a million comments from the red headed boy in her pictures. "Sabakyu no Gaara, let's see what type of guy Sakura likes."

His page to his surprise was completely blank. It was either blank or it said murder, blood, and gore and crap. 'That little emo kid.' **(2)** He thought as he rolled his eyes. 'So this is the type that Sakura was into before…' He glanced towards her status. "The closer I get the farther I really am, huh?" He closed his laptop and smirked in the darkness. "Haruno Sakura, amazingly anti-social girl who can socialize as well as Ino, irritatingly annoying girl who breaks down everything I have built up, mysterious past of angry emo boyfriends, make up, long hair, and perfect smiles. Humans are three dimensional, huh?" He smiled. Little did he know a certain someone was sitting upon the edge of the stairs listening to his comments on the life of Haruno Sakura.

* * *

**1. Oh my dear lord, I'm not advertising them or anything, but it's like. "Anyone who is anyone has one!" That's a point I'll point out at the end of this fic when I'm done…. Which won't be too soon ….**

**2. HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA. Coming from the king of emos himself, he calls Gaara an emo.**

**3. ((read this after you've read the bottom part)) That's why it's just Sasuke and Sakura all the time, because the second opposing character hasn't appeared yet. Right now I'm using them to develop characters. Teehee. **

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Hello People, I'm ending this chapter a little short… well four pages short, but that's because I don't have the time to do my normal sixteen page thingy. So sorry.

By the way, I'll just tell you now. I actually don't have any pairings planned. It seems like Sasuke X Sakura right now, but that's only because you haven't seen the things I have planned for Neji. By the way, I will tell you. Main characters will follow this format:  
Sakura if with Sasuke, a number of people who will show up later. (**3)**  
Sakura if with Neji, Tenten  
Sakura if with Hinata, Naruto  
Sakura if with Ino, Sasuke  
Needless to say the only main character is Sakura for sure.

I'm taking a poll by the way. I can either do extremely long chapters that will be updated very slowly or shorter chapters that will be updated weekly. The writing quality will neither go down or up. The choice is yours. So I need at least three reviews. Pwetty please??


	4. Memories That Remind Me of You

This is chapter is really short and is being updated way late. Forgive me. It took me a while to make a big decision between these two different ideas because it would change everything in two complete different directions, but I scrapped that ideas I had and made this one instead.  
I changed my mind about something though not that any of you can guess what since i didn't tell you. :3  
This chapter focuses mainly on the past and nothing really happens in the present in this chapter, but you can see the type of person Sakura was before she changed.

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THANK YOU SO MUCH! to the people who reviewed and the people who didn't but more so towards the people who did review, because they made me guilty enough to actually update this.

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"_Why did you kill him?"_

"_He got in the way." _

"_Why didn't you kill me?" _

"_You were lucky." _

"_Would you have killed me?"_

"_You scared?" _

"_Not at all, death is a part of life." _

"_You're different from your little clique at school. Most of them would be scared shitless right now. They'd be yelling at me while I was in here, but as soon as I got out, they'd fear for their life. You'd be smart if you acted like them, avoiding me that is. I'm dangerous." He emphasized the word dangerous. _

"_You're different from the rumours." _

"_Is that so?" _

"_Yes, the rumours said that you won't speak to anyone, yet here I am." She tilted her head a bit perplexed._

"_Here you are." _

"_Will you kill me when you get out? I'm the reason you were incarcerated." The girl said referring to her participation in the trial. _

"_Hn." _

"_Would you do it if I asked you to?"_

_And for once, he remained silent and stared at her amazed. "Are you going to answer my question?" _

"_So you're suicidal? Feeling like you're not pretty enough?" He said with a wicked grin. Little girls and their simplistic problems seemed to humor him enough. It seemed like he was trying to mentally torture the little girl who had come here to speak with him especially. _

"_I never said that I wanted to die. I'm just wondering if you took requests." Again the boy had no answer for the strange girl. "One more week, huh? I wonder how freedom tastes?" There was no ill intent, but from the expression on the boy's face, it seemed like it offended him. _

"_Who put you up to this? Was it my siblings? They are too scared to even visit." He growled which made the security guard worry a bit, but the girl waved him off. _

"_No one did anything. I just wanted to make a promise with a criminal before I die. A bucket list so to speak." _

"_So I fit the bill?" He snickered. The girl was either a complete moron or an idiot. Either way, she didn't have enough brain cells to think things properly or normally. _

"_Yep, I'm going to take advantage of your rather non-advantageous position." _

"_Now I'm suspicious." He let out a chuckle. It was a strange throaty laughter. _

"_Why's that?" There was so much innocence in her features, but her wide eyes revealed endless knowledge that destroyed all traces of innocence._

"_Who hired you, and what do they really want?" _

"_You're entirely incapable of being reasoned with aren't you—not to mention an innate ability to hastily avoid any question by asking another question which is quite a conundrum for little old me. After all, I'm only one of those girls from that one clique that just wants to fit in while still feeling ever so insecure and suicidal, right?" She scoffed at his impression of her._

"_Hn." He responded instantly. A light peal of laughter filled the air. This strange noise caught the boy's attention, and he looked up to see a bright smile on the girl's face. "You're a strange one." The girl flinched for a second, but soon returned to her regular disposition. It didn't go unnoticed by the jailbird boy. _

"_Do they give you ice cream in this juvenile delinquent center?" _

"_Are you serious?"_

"_Answer the question." _

"_No." _

"_Pity." The girl sighed. "Should that be my promise to you?" He raised an eyebrow rather than dignifying the strange girl with a verbal answer. "I'm referring to the ice cream of course, but that doesn't seem like a life fulfilling promise." _

"_Life fulfilling, eh?" He snickered as finally visiting hours ended and the guard walked up to capture the boy and return him to his cell. "Looks like you're out of time." The boy smirked as the guard man handled him out of the room though it was unnecessary. The girl just looked after him slightly confused. _

* * *

"You remind me of something." Sakura said as she sat next to Uchiha Sasuke in his shiny black car. He ignored her question and pushed down harder on the gas pedal. His jaw was clenched and an irritated expression was clearly displayed on his face.

It was only earlier that morning that things seemed so perfect. He had stayed up the whole night researching this thing called Haruno Sakura. She was no longer a girl. She was no longer a human. She was an it. That was the only way to describe it. First of all it was impossible to wake up. Well that was technically untrue, it was possible to wake her up—the problem lied within her reaction after being awoken when not wanting to be. Sasuke had once felt what he thought was Sakura's full strength punch when she had hit him for making his hired help work too much, for treating people like dirt, or for whatever reason she somehow found offensive. He was so totally and completely wrong as he got punched in the face by the sleep deprived pink haired it. He actually spit out blood from that punch. It would have been a greater embarrassment if it had actually stayed conscious enough to notice him mumbling a long string of curses. "Ice cream." The girl continued even though the boy remained unresponsive.

"Ice cream?" He repeated. The girl grinned in victory as her strange answer had finally broken through the stern boy's façade.

"Don't let it go to your head." Sakura said as she started to mess with the radio. She changed it to a classical station and began to hum along with the song. He sneered at her comment.

"You've managed to make me miss a morning of work and we're well on our way to barely being on time for school, but all you can think of is a comparison of me to ice cream?" Sasuke sighed and eased up on the gas. He pulled into the school parking lot.

"That sounds about right," Sakura said as she looked out at the school and all the students with a scrutinizing glance.

"So you agree, since when do you do that?" Sasuke smirked as he pulled into a spot.

"I was referring to you trying to analyze me once again." His eyes widened as he watched the pink hair girl leave his car. 'I'll regret this later,' Sasuke thought as he exited the car and entered into a school full of gossip and trifling trouble.

* * *

"_It's you again." He glared at her. _

"_You have more bondage." She commented as she looked at the straight jacket bounding his arms. _

"_I got into a fist fight with someone of little consequence." _

"_You won." She commented idly as she pulled out an ice cream cone. "I'm a little later than usual because my dear little friends just had to stop for ice cream." She licked it before lowering her hand under the table._

"_Is this some way to tempt me?" He snickered._

"_Not in the least. They wanted me to have some ice cream to calm my nerves before heading to my 'therapist.' My dear little friends believe I am traumatized and going to a therapist when I'm actually going to you whom they blame for my sudden strange behaviour which I find quite contradictory since it is normal behaviour to be freaked out and act strange since I have someone who could potentially kill me in a week or so. Do you think it would freak them out more if I was as calm around them as I am around you, or is it just foolish to even try?" _

"_Not that I didn't enjoy your little pointless rant but-" _

"_It wasn't pointless. I was just thinking that maybe if I answered one of your questions directly, you'd answer mine." He just stared at her with a dumbfound look. No words could come to his mind as he stared at the strange girl. _

"_I've decided to not kill you, isn't that good enough?" _

"_I already told you that death is a part of life, but regardless of that you can't kill me." _

"_Will you be as confident when I get out?" _

"_Yes." Such a fragile looking girl looked so strong in that one instant. He did not know why, but that look infuriated him._

"_Just for that, I think I will kill you." He growled at her with a dark sneer in his eyes._

"_I don't think you will." He stood up and looked ready to pounce, but the reaction he got was not what he wanted. The guard had reacted, but the tiny girl before him just stared at him with a bored look. The guard had grabbed him and slammed him against the wall and started to holler about attacking people or something, but neither he nor the girl heard anything. He was too immersed in the very presence of the tiny girl. _

"_Maybe it'd be best if you left miss." The guard's mindless mutterings suddenly caught both of their attentions. _

"_Are visiting hours over?" She replied blankly._

"_Well no, but this man is very dangerous."_

"_The only one here who believes that statement is you. Can we return to our conversation?" The girl said quite icily as she briskly turned away from the guard and began to look at her hair as if it were the most interesting thing in the universe. The guard stood stunned and angered at the girl's lack of concern for her safety. Perhaps he wanted the jailbird boy to attack the girl. That would explain why he took off the straight jacket off. _

"_Seems like you're the bell of the ball." He muttered as he looked at the glowering guard sulking in the corner. It did not take a genius to see that the guard wanted him to lash out at the petite girl. "Now what did you mean that I can't kill you?" _

"_I was just simply stating a fact."_

"_A fact, is it?" _

"_Yes." _

"_You certainly don't seem that strong. You probably can't defend against someone of my body size. Physically, you'd lose if we got in a fist fight." A giggle escaped from the girl's lips. The boy looked surprised but continued. "No one will go against me, so don't count on other people protecting you." Another giggle escaped from her. The boy just stared at her once again dumbfounded. _

"_Assumptions are so vague, yet people depend on them all the same." She smiled. "I find it quite comical."_

"_Why do you think I can't kill you then?" _

"_I'll only answer once you tell your life fulfilling wish." The girl smiled and began to lick her ice cream cone that had become a sad puddle of melted ice cream on the ground. Her hand was wet with the sticky substance, and the boy had all but forgotten that she had had it. She dropped it to the ground and stepped on the remains of the cone. "Did you know? I hate ice cream." _

* * *

Sakura ignored the sounds of the bell signaling that lunch was now over and it was time to go back to class. She just stayed curled up into a ball.

"Well, aren't you coming?" He asked as he stood up towering over the curled up girl. She didn't respond. "You already ditched yesterday." Sasuke mentioned as he glanced down at the girl. A shiver rocked her body as the wind picked up. "I'm going to leave." A smirk stretched across her lips as she held her muscles tight to keep from shivering.

"No you won't."

"Hn."

"You're captivated." Sakura said as she spread out and looked up at Sasuke's dumbfounded face. He would have looked away, but it would have been an admission. He would have stared more intently, but it would only prove her right. His pride hindered him.

"Hn." He grimaced as he sat down next to her. The girl just sighed and stared up at the white puffy clouds slowly gathering.

"It's good you can admit some of your faults. I know I can't.." Sakura trailed off at the end. Sasuke just snickered.

_

* * *

_

It had been two days since the girl had visited the jailbird boy. To be honest, it was rather lonely, and even if he didn't like the girl, he couldn't not smile when his eyes met her bright shining smile.

"'_Where were you'?" She announced. "Well I was being held captive by my dear little friends. They found out that I have no therapist, and was wondering why I couldn't hang out with them. Normally I would have made up some random shit about my parents being worried, but I remembered that I had mistakenly told them that I lived with my aunt and uncle." _

"_Thanks for the info, but I really don't care." She merely smiled as he took his seat across from her. He no longer wore the straight jacket, and the same guard entered with them. _

"_So have you decided to answer my question?" She asked as she stared up vacantly at the ceiling. He merely sneered. _

"_Still think I won't kill you as soon as I'm free." _

"_Undoubtedly, you won't." The girl looked down at him. "And to answer your question, I still won't tell you why I think so until you answer mine." _

"_Little Miss Interogater? I've been through this sketch, girl." _

"_I'm not trying to pry it out of you, but if it comes to that I will." _

"_You think you can?"_

"_Do I really need to reiterate myself?" _

"_You seem more hostile." He grinned as if finally getting somewhere with the strange girl._

"_Like I said, my dear little friends-"_

"_Why do you refer to them as your _dear little friends_?" _

"_Either you want me to answer your previous inquiry, or you want me to answer this new one, Pick." _

"_Fiesty, today?" He smirked as the girl just fumed silently. She let out an inaudible sigh and began to mess with her hair with one hand before glancing his way once more._

"_Charades is a fun game, but it gets frustrating when the other players are horrible at guessing." _

"_Charades?"_

"_You sound surprised, but you shouldn't be since you participate in it so willingly." He stared at her slightly confounded. She just began to drum her fingers against the table._

"_What's this now?" _

"_Don't you know how to play charades?"_

"_Hn." He responded. _

"_Basically you act one what's on the card, and the other people on your team have to figure out what you are acting out. Understand?"_

"_You think I'm putting on a charade—no, you know I'm putting on a charade." _

"_Normally I let them figure it out on their own! Look at that, I was so frustrated that I led you straight to the answer. That's so unlike me or is it?" She let out a delightful peal of laughter. _

"_You are too?" He gasped at this relevation._

"_I think I will take my leave now." She stood up and the guard soon apprehended the boy but not before throwing a dark glare at the girl. The girl just disregarded it._

"_Why leave?"_

"The blossoms I planted only bloom at sundown. This will be the first time they bloom, I can't miss that." She smiled and waved goodbye.

* * *

"Such a cruel little girl." Sasuke said as he stared at the pink haired girl whom he practically dragged back into the school building. There was a dazed look on her face which wasn't all that abnormal, but every now and then he could swear he heard the girl let out a chuckle. Ever since her comment this morning, the girl seemed to be in an ethereal state, but this ethereal state was only when in the proximity of Uchiha Sasuke alone.

"Cruel. That's a good description of me." Sakura said as she looked through the halls. All eyes were still glancing towards the couple. The school had officially named her a slut and a whore. Sasuke and Neji were just a poor victims in her little clutches. Only half of the day had progressed and already all of the student body was outraged against the girl. No one dared to look directly at her or Sasuke. It was the unspoken rule in high school. Never ask a person something directly because, of course, they will never answer you directly. So instead, everyone was just spreading mindless rumours and praying that either they were true or false.

"So it can agree on at least one thing." He mocked as Sakura stopped before her locker and began working on the combination.

"Definitely ice cream…" She mumbled as a light laugh escaped through her lips. He peered into those inscrutable green eyes that looked shallow on the surface but was as deep as the sea itself. . "Now go run and play before Yamanaka-san reprimands you and I," He simply looked off and displayed a carefree pose. Sakura just smirked obviously entertained at his childish actions. "I'd prefer not to push Yamanaka-san to her breaking point. You know how fragile we girls are."

"You're fragile?" His mouth hung agape a bit astonished.

"Like a flower." Her peals of light, airy laughter filled the air as she stalked down the hallway as carefree as Sasuke had tried to be earlier. He growled as he watched her retreating figure. 'I should have left her to die outside.' He thought as he begrudgingly headed towards his own classroom.

* * *

_He stared at the girl across from him. It had been a full week since he had last seen her. Today was the last day of his sentence. He thought that he would never again glance upon that strange girl. It was a strange feeling seeing the girl once more. No words were spoken as the guard let him in to speak with the girl. The two had remained in utter silence for a good ten minutes, yet it felt very natural._

"_The flowers bloomed beautifully, but they're dead now." She said as she stared into the boy's eyes intently. He did not say a word. He only glared at her. "I couldn't stay away, you know?" He merely snickered and continued to glare at her. "I think it's because I'm captivated." His eyes widened slightly but still he did not speak a word. "I don't really have a bucket list." She continued to gaze at him with unblinking eyes. "When I look into those eyes, I just want to pluck them out of your skull and clench them in my hand." The guard stiffened a bit and looked at the strange girl now listening to their conversation if one could call it that. _

"_Why?"_

"_Because they hold no regrets."_

"_What?"_

"_I don't need to know your promise anymore, because I came up with a better one." _

"_You're still singing that same old tune?" He yawned a bit as if slightly bored._

"_Yep, too bad for you, that I can't tell you what it is." He arched an eyebrow._

"_You're in a better mood than our last meeting though I wonder if that's a good thing or a bad thing." He smirked._

"_Nothing matters either way." _

* * *

Sakura would have loved to say that class was going to be a wonderful time and that things went by quite smoothly, but that would have been a lie. During class there was an innate amount of glares—not stares—directed at the pink haired girl. She kept her head down as she normally did and took her notes while keeping her sound proof headphones securely on her ears. Jealousy was indeed an ugly thing yet as Sakura looked at all the girls, she couldn't help but think of them as cute. 'How nice it must be to love someone to the point of extreme hatred.' Sakura pondered as her mind wandered. It seemed to be becoming a habit. Her thoughts ranged from her still wet hair and the possibility of pneumonia to her memories etched deep in the far recesses of her mind. If not for the teacher's mindless voice in the background and her body being firmly stuck to the ground by gravity, she would have floated up into the sky of never ending possibilities.

It was during this thoughtful period of time that she had finally noticed the amount of looks she truly received in the classroom. Most people didn't have the backbone to stand out and ask her a question, but with the rising interest in her, Sakura was quite sure that soon there would be Ino-type confrontations in the near future. It's not like they bothered her that much, they were just inconvenient. Oh well such was the fate of a girl who happened to actually not care all that much.

"Haruno Sakura," An unfamiliar voice breeched the inner thoughts of Sakura just long enough for them to get her attention. Sakura looked up and all about her to find the owner of the voice. It belonged to the girl in the desk next to her. The girl was pointing to a small note on the very edge of her desk that was probably intended for Sakura. Sakura not even trying to be discreet grabbed it and opened it with a bored look on her face. After a quick glance, she shoved the note into her bag and continued on taking notes and dwelling in the innermost realms of her mind. 'Love is such a powerful emotion…' Sakura thought as her thoughts drifted towards a certain blonde haired girl. The note was probably written by a group of girls who thought of Sakura as an enemy. At least that's what Sakura's suspicions were. It was either a malicious bunch of girls or a gay guy which she doubted. The note simply stated to stay away from both Neji and Sasuke. As if she wanted their undying attention to her every action. Oh where were the days of her solitude?

* * *

Hinata was wondering when would be a good time to question her friend about Neji. She had decided that just before sixth period would be an ideal time because neither she, Naruto, nor Sasuke had a class even relatively near her. It would be the perfect time to talk to the pink haired girl. So Hinata went with her plan and waited ever so patiently in front of the classroom. Sakura looked rather surprised to see her dark haired friend waiting patiently by the door.

"Hyuuga-san?" Sakura inquired as she tapped her on the shoulder. The girl looked rather nervous.

"Hello." She said politely.

"What's the matter?" Sakura said as she looked at the fretting girl before her.

"I needed to speak to you on a certain matter privately."

"I see, so what's the matter, Hyuuga-san." Sakura said with a light smile gracing her lips.

"What is your relation with Neji-sama?" Hinata said in a quiet whisper.

"He caught me ditching." Sakura said with a shrug of her shoulders. "No need to fret my dear. I didn't deflower his innocence."

"What?" Hinata yelped while turning a bright shade of tomato red in the process. Sakura laughed a bit.

"Sorry that was a bit of humor at your expense. Forgive me?" Hinata nodded as the redness faded from her visage, and as it did a strong look of worry filled it's place. Sakura began to enter her classroom when Hinata spoke up once more,

"Please stay away from my cousin. He's dangerous at times."

"Will do, Hyuuga-san." Sakura said as she waltzed into her classroom. Hinata felt better having warned her friend yet worried at the repercussions to come. Sakura walked in and found yet another note to which she rolled her eyes and placed in her bag before plopping down and pulling out her notebook.

* * *

Ino stared out vacantly out the window. She wondered what had progressed with Sasuke and Sakura. He did not seem any different, and to her surprise, there seemed to be more of an animosity than a blooming relationship of any kind. It was also a great relief to her. It seemed like other groups of girls were slowing going to target Sakura as well. Ino could interfere and stop them. 'Where's the fun in that?' Ino said as she ran a hand through her long blonde hair. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. No, that old cliché was utterly untrue in the eyes of Yamanaka Ino; however, the enemy of my enemy is useful. This statement was a prove fact.

* * *

"_I'd say expect the unexpected, but that's expected." The girl said as she glanced at the jailbird boy who was being set free. The guard was unlocking his cuffs and handing him the possessions they had kept when he caught sight of the girl. She was wearing a pure white sundress with a white parasol to match. To anyone on the outside, it would appear as though an angel of eternal beauty had gone to earth to retrieve a fallen soul from jail. At least, that is the poetic way of putting things. In truth, he was surprised and yet entirely not surprised at the girl's presence. _

"_You just can't leave me alone." He grumbled. _

"_Not like you want me to though." She said as she glanced up at the sky. In the distance dark clouds approached ever so slowly over the horizon. "Looks like you chose a bad day to be released." _

"_Yes, I chose this date." He rolled his eyes._

"_Where do you want to go?" _

"_Home."_

"_Where's that?"_

"_You're going to follow me there?" He said in disbelief. "It's a long walk, girlie." _

"_Well I was going to drive you there, but"_

"_You drive? How old are you—twelve?" _

"_Fine then. Walk in the rain." _

"_Fine, I'll believe you. Where's your ride?" She pointed towards a mustang convertible. "You own a mustang?"_

"_No, I'm borrowing it from my parents."_

"_Your Aunt and Uncle?"_

"_Yep." _

"_And by borrowing, you took it?"_

"_Correct."_

"_You're a little rebellious."_

"_I guess so." She shrugged and headed towards the car. _

"_Or you're just really insane." He said as he walked to the passenger side of the car. The girl entered into the car and sat down. He soon followed suit and watched the strange girl bring the car to life and pull out of the lot. He gave her the directions and before long they were driving on a lonesome road heading towards his home. "Do you really trust me? I'm a convicted felon. You witnessed me murdering someone. You're either a fool or a idealist. I could kill you, steal this car, drive off, and leave your body in the woods somewhere." _

"_I'm neither." The girl said as the rain slowly started to pelt down onto the car. She turned on the windshield wipers and the sound of the pressing against the glass filled in the silence between them. "There's two flaws in your little criminal rant. 1. There are no woods anywhere near here, so have fun dumping the body somewhere inconspicuous. Any real criminal would realize this. 2. I'm not the one trusting you. You're the one trusting me." _

"_How's that?" He asked surprised by her answer._

"_Perhaps I'm just an insane little girl who is driving you home in a car that is not her own. For all you know, I could be the psychopath. After all, I am the one who was visiting a convict who had killed in front of me, yet I do not even bat an eyelash." She let out a dry laugh. "You're so innocent." _

"_I'm the innocent one. Coming from the little girl dressed in all white carrying around a white frilly parasol? The man who was just released from jail is innocent?"_

"_Did you know that girls are rather contradictory?"_

"_Subject change?" He questioned. _

"_Not really. Girls are the most cruel and sturdy things. We spin our webs, yet as we're caught suddenly all those webs crumble and we are squashed." Her eyes seemed to be looking off at something that wasn't of this world. _

"_How is that not a subject change?" She smiled, and he smiled. In that one moment, the two insane children shared a bit of happiness. _

* * *

Sakura woke up at the sounds of her sixth period bell. Class was over and it was now time for her to take her leave. She gathered her things and headed out the hall. She reached over towards her locker and was quite surprised. The lock on her had been painted black. The numbers and tick marks noting her where to stop and turn were now gone. They all blended into a nice black circle that gave her no clue how to open her locker. "That's inconvenient." She pressed her ear against the locker near the lock. The other students stared on quite surprised. It seems like the perpetrators were watching on hoping to see the pink haired girl writhe in agony at the lack of visible numbers on her locker. 'People certainly love to use the same old tricks, don't they?' Sakura thought as she heard the final click of her lock meaning that it was finally open or at least she hoped. To her great pleasure, it slid open without a hitch. She placed her books into her locker and pulled out the necessary ones for homework and closed it.

It turns out the girl who had previously dumped the bucket of water on her head during the day was still outraged about Sakura's relationship with both Neji and Sasuke. Sakura had noticed that the same girl who had spoken out earlier was looking particularly smug in the classroom. Perhaps if she wasn't reaching into the recesses of her mind, she would have seen this, but it was far more fun for Sakura to have her head in the clouds. It distracted her from the constant prodding of Uchiha Sasuke and the inquiring and hateful gazes she received. Those gazes would probably double since she had just shone some of her delinquent skills. The headlines were bright and clear in her head. 'Haruno Sakura, the whore slut has been to jail.' It technically wasn't false just a misconception. 'People are some of the most interesting things I'll ever know.' Sakura thought as she walked through the halls.

"Sakura-chan!" Naruto cried as he waved towards her from the end of the hall. She waved back in return. "Want to hang out with us?"

"Us?"

"I'm taking that as a yes."

"Huh?" Sakura said as Naruto linked arms with hers and pulled her out of the building. She was pulled into his car—the very same car that hit her on her very first day. Along with her, there were two other people in his car.

"What took you so long?" Someone complained. Sakura was not yet acquainted with the owner of it.

"I had to pick up a stray." Naruto let go of her arm and walked over to the driver's side.

"Stray?" Sakura said as she climbed into the passenger seat in the front and buckled in. "So I'm guessing, he kidnapped you guys as well." She said as she looked vacantly out the window. They stayed silent for a moment as they finally took in who was in the front seat.

"You're that Haruno girl?"

'What is it with people and not using honorifics these days?' Sakura thought as she ignored his comment.

"Oi, you guys haven't met Sakura-chan yet, have you?" Naruto said as he pulled out of the parking lot in a maniacal fashion. In a strange way it fit his wild personality. "Sakura-chan, these are my friends." Very deliberately, she rolled her eyes and said,

"Inuzuka Kiba."

"Nara Shikamaru."

"Haruno Sakura." She looked over her shoulder and smiled at them.

"You know there are lots of rumours floating around you. It's like I'm meeting royalty." Kiba joked. Sakura just looked out of the corner of her eye obviously not amused.

"Royalty, eh? So what am I then?" Sakura humored him.

"What do you mean?" Kiba asked slightly confused. Ignoring his question, her eyes focused on the other person in the car who was being very still.

"Is he asleep?" Sakura asked as she glanced at the boy who was presumably lightly snoring.

"Most likely." Kiba said as he poked his sleeping friend's head.

"Instantaneous sleep, neat." She smiled.

"Not really, cause he'll fall asleep in the middle of a conversation, and that is just annoying." Kiba complained.

"And when he wakes up to have a conversation, he just whines." Naruto threw in as he continued down the road.

"Fun. So where are we going?"

"She doesn't know?" Kiba asked.

"It's a surprise." Naruto said as he hit the gas and accelerated forward.

* * *

"_Didn't I say turn there?" The jailbird said as he glared at the girl driving the car._

"_Yes, you did." She retorted._

"_Maybe you really are some kind of psycho. That would explain so many things." He joked. "Although it wouldn't explain the rumours." She smirked._

"_It applies to you too." The girl said as she slowed down and parked in front of a park. "All of the gossip I heard was that you never speak to and if you do it's frightening. You kill anyone who looks you in the eye, and other such scary things. Rumours and gossip are always just that rumours and gossip." He looked off for a second before taking in his surroundings._

"_This isn't my home." _

"_Nobody is going to be there, right? Why not spend your first few hours with a friend?" He nodded curious as to what the girl was thinking. _

"_More like stalker." He replied as he leaned back into his seat. She pulled out the key and opened the door exposing herself to the rain. It was nothing but a soft drizzle but one could still catch a cold from the chill. The girl didn't react a bit as she ran towards the jungle gym nestled in the center of the park as if it was the sweet honey drawing in a bee. The boy against his better judgment climbed out of the car and followed her on a trek to the jungle gym. He merely watched as she took off in a sprint towards the swings. The jailbird laughed a bit when she nearly slipped in a patch of muddy grass. Just as she reached them, she looked over her shoulder. "Coming?" He nodded and smiled. _

_It continued to drizzle on them as the girl enjoyed herself on the swings. The boy feeling more mature merely watched the girl play as though she were still a child._

"_You look like a damn fool." He smirked._

"_Are you sure?" Her voice whisked by him as she went by. _

"_Smiling in a white dress in the rain on swings, let me think," He watched her fly past him once more. "Yep, a damn fool." _

"_Be that as it may it's still better than being in a lonely house, right?" She jumped off and landed nearly flashing him in the process. As she stood up and looked back at him with a proud smile on her face, the jailbird boy couldn't help but think that it was better if not stranger._

* * *

So there it is my dearies. You got some insight as to how Sakura was before she became the person she is today. You guys can take a guess as to who this is that she is speaking to. To be honest I'm not even sure which is bad. Depending on the reviews if I get any, it might change.

That locker thing actually happened to my friend. We tried to break in and failed but it is possible to open them by listening, but you have to learn to listen for it and practice. Who has time for that?


	5. Confusion Is Inevitable With Me

For the record, you will most definitely have a hard time reading this chapter. I decided to be a total bitch and write this in the weirdest way possible, because I felt that dynamics would work better. You can decide if you like this method or not. Most of you won't. In retrospect, this was actually a lot easier to write for me, because it is easier for me to write a climax and then write the beginning middle and falling action all the while changing perspectives and letting characters finally get introduced.

By the way, Kiba was going to have a purpose in this chapter which is why he was mentioned in this chapter, but I decided against it and used different characters entirely.

For the record, you're all wrong about who the jailbird was. "Siblings" wasn't a clue for you. It was another part of his facade. I'm devious. The person you did guess, isn't going to show up, but his thoughts and past relationship with Sakura is, in order for you to understand Sakura, you have to understand the person she was while she was changing. I am using the guy you guessed for that reason.

Ain't I a stinker?

* * *

Disclaimer: It is pretty pointless to put a disclaimer because hello the name of the site is "" good gosh....

* * *

**TO make things easier a little, when it changes perspective to one particular person which should be pretty obvious when you read it, it's bold.** _The past/flashbacks are still done in italics in case you didn't notice from the last chapter. _This is a different person's perspective which should also be noticeable. During like the only flashback scene in this chapter, it is actually three different flashbacks. one with the jailbird, one with sasuke, one with the guy you all guessed. i changed the italics a little each time to differentiate, hope it helps a little. LITTLE being the key word.

* * *

"I remember kissing you in the rain. You stole my first kiss, whilst you had been kissed before. It was harsh, and it scared me, but underlying was a gentleness that you couldn't hide from me."

"You're rather perceptive." He interjected. She nodded before continuing,

"You once said, 'You are from my own personal hell. Everything I want to hide, you lay out. Everything that makes me horrible becomes kindness. Everything I regret, you make me feel as if I shouldn't. You are the cruelest little creature that this world has ever known, and you're aware of it while the world lies in destruction, you will heal the world while doing the cruelest things that not even demons can think of.' My first thought to that was that the one who does all the healing has ever been you. You were dead on about being the cruelest person ever born though,"

"I've changed my mind though."

"How's that?"

"You aren't cruel. You are cleansing."

"Cleansing?" The girl let out a peal of laughter.

"Yes, over the years I've gotten rather wise."

"Right." The girl said with doubt.

"I like you, Sakura." The boy said with a gentle smile on his face. "If there is only one person in this world to believe me, I'm glad that it was you."

"I didn't have to believe. It was the truth." The girl sighed. "You can't forget that you hate me."

"You can't forget that hate and love are so close that only a hair's length is between them."

"Don't make me happy." A tear gathered at the corner of her eye.

"Don't make me happy." He reached forward and put his hands upon her shoulders. It wasn't a hug, but it was the best thing that he allowed himself to do. She just stood there crying. They stayed like that for a good time. At last the girl stopped her silent crying. "Such a fragile little girl," He teased.

"Such a scary pedophile," The girl responded with a smirk as all traces of tears were gone. "Tell those losers go to hell," She said with the upmost seriousness about her.

"We'll meet you there."

With that said, the two of them parted ways.

* * *

"You know him."

"Yes."

"I hate him."

"I know."

"How do you know him?"

"Old school."

"He would have been in high school."

"I was in middle school."

"Why?"

"I thought you always wanted to know what changed me."

"You're lying!"

"No."

"You want me to believe that that bastard of a man was the one who changed you."

"He's a good person."

"Do you know what he's done to me?!"

"Yes."

"You know that he killed everyone I cared about!"

"Yes."

"He convinced you that he was innocent, then?!" He screamed.

"He pleaded that he was guilty to me."

"Why then?!"

"I can't tell you."

"Why?"

"I promised him."

"Promises are shit to him!"

"Let go of me."

"Tell me!"

"Let go."

"Why him?"

"You're hurting me, Sasuke." Her voice remained completely even.

"Why?" He yelled.

"I'm bleeding Sasuke." He froze and let his arms drop.

"It doesn't make sense…" He mumbled in defeat.

* * *

I stared in awe as my older brother walked through the doors of her home. He seemed just as shocked as me. The pink haired girl just smiled at me and me completely calm. Did she know what this man did to me? Apparently not as she sat there calmly smiling at us. "Family reunion—weird," She let out a light string of laughter that only made the air more tense. How could she let a convicted felon into her house with a blind smile on her face? "I knew you were coming to visit, but I didn't think it'd be today." Sakura's smile only further increased my rising anger. She mumbled something about her and Itachi heading to the backyard to talk about things and told me to wait here. I did. If I listened to their conversation, I'd probably end up killing Sakura along with Itachi. Everything was a blur until Sakura reentered the room Itachi-less. Her eyes looked a little red and immediately I wondered if Itachi had chewed her out as I was about to, but still the words escaped my lips.

**"Yes." From there on, I don't know who took over but it was an angry beast. I yelled and screamed and pushed her up against a wall with her hands pinned to the wall on either side of her head. I wasn't even conscious of grabbing onto her thin little shoulders and shaking and gripping them until blood ran down her pale arms. The red color reminded me of everything I tried so hard to forget, so I finally looked away and tried to calm down. She didn't move from that spot though. **

* * *

"Sasuke."

"What?"

"Can you promise me something?"

"Sure."

"Promise me that you won't cry when I leave."

"I thought you were finally settled."

"Promise me that you'll forget that I ever existed when I hurt you."

"What are you talking about?"

"Promise me that you'll hate me."

"I don't understand."

"Promise me!"

"Fine."

* * *

**We stayed in silence for a while. The steady sound of her light breathing was the only thing that kept me sane right then. I think her presence was the only thing that kept me from running after my brother and trying to murder him for all the sins he has committed. Time passed, but it felt like it was frozen. Finally someone spoke up. Just like all the other times, she spoke up first. She said my name in a different tone. It was very sad. In a weird way, the way she said my name felt like a way of saying goodbye? I looked up and turned to look at the girl. Her eyes looked rather blank. She wasn't staring at me. Her eyes were staring out the window looking as the world was slowly moving forward. **

"Can you promise me something?"** It was a strange question, but nonetheless I'd answer it. She told me her list of things to do. I didn't understand what anything she said meant. It all didn't feel real. The words were like the wind passing by me, the only thing that was tangible was the tone of her voice. It was wavering and shaky. It was like her emotions were too raw for her to control at that moment. When she finally looked at me, I was scared that her expression would be sad. I was terribly wrong. While her voice was full of broken and mixed emotions, her face was a calm blank slate. I could read more on a white wall than on her pale face. It scared me a little.**

* * *

Sakura stared out at the room. There were lights. There was dancing. There was a high level of alcohol. There was a bit of drugs here and there, but only in concentrated areas and only with those foolish enough to arrive high. There were people like her sitting around only unlike Sakura, were enjoying the party and chatting up other party attendees. There was a jocular air about the whole occasion. This was a high school party. It was one that only those within the coolest circles of the cliché cliques could hold. It was one that only those who were deemed amazing or entertaining enough to enter would enter. Haruno Sakura was both familiar and alien to occasions such as these. Her friend Naruto with pure intentions had driven her along with two strangers who were no longer strangers in order for the anti-social girl to blossom. It was a failure. At first Naruto walked around with her trying to make her loosen up when he realized that Sakura was a stubborn girl beyond all reason.

Sakura as he had gotten to know was a smart girl, who could, if she gave the effort to, get along with everyone. But as he weaved her through the sea of people, he got called away and left the girl's side. He couldn't find her, but he hoped that she was getting along well. It was in his nature to help those. Little did he know that it was a suicide mission with Haruno Sakura. She had ran away from the party and escaped to a veranda. The party was still visible by glass sliding doors that went closed blocked out some of the noise. This is why she chose to hide in this location.

So we are now up to date with Haruno Sakura and the reason she is sitting on a veranda looking in on the very lively party.

"You don't seem to be enjoying the party." A familiar voice said as someone entered her plain of solitude. "Drink some, it may make you normal."

"I already did. Four actually." The girl pointed to a stack of cups sitting next to her.

"You don't seem even a little buzzed."

"Some can handle their drinks better than others."

"Wouldn't expect you to be one of them."

"I'm guessing you're the designated driver?" The boy nodded. "Did Naruto drag you along solely for that reason?"

"Yeah, it's rather troublesome, but Kiba and Naruto tend to get plowed real fast."

"I can totally see that."

"I guess you do fit in with the drunk crowd then?" He said placing his own cup onto hers making it a neat stack.

"Fit in, eh?" She said it with a bit of dry humor. He sat down next to her and let out a sigh. The two of them just sat there in comfortable silence.

"Did you know you stole my spot?" He mumbled as he looked up at the sky. The sun had long gone down, and glimmering stars had taken their place. It was a bit cold, but a comfortable one. "The one on the field. I went outside like I normally do, and there you were. I had no choice, but to move to the roof. It's not as comfortable as lying on the grass, and it takes a lot more energy."

"Ah." Sakura sighed and looked up at the sky as well. It looked endless in her eyes.

"You're smart. Avoiding people by not even appearing interested. It's genius. It makes life easier."

"I'm not avoiding anyone." Sakura said as she looked towards him with a sad expression. "I'm not hiding anything, I just honestly would rather be alone." He glanced down at her slightly surprised. "It's not that I don't find company to be enjoyable, I just prefer to be alone."

"Are you asking me to leave?"

"Nope. Are you coming on to me?" Sakura smirked.

"How'd you know?" The two of them laughed lightly. "I guess I'm a little buzzed…"

"I can tell." Sakura said.

"I figured you would. Your eyes are always wide open." He looked back up to the sky. "You aren't a happy person."

"Seems like I have another fan," Sakura commented. They smiled in the quiet air.

"You tend to bring out great reactions."

"It's all part of my evil plot to take over the world." Her voice sounded so sure that for a moment if Shikamaru was not as intelligent as he was, he would have believed her.

"I highly doubt that."

"Okay, you got me. I get off on messing with people." His eyes widened for a moment but returned to normal. Sakura smirked. "I almost got you."

"Almost."

"Sometimes I wish I'd let myself be categorized…" She began to rub her temples as if the tension was finally catching up to her. Shikamaru just looked at her strange before closing his eyes. He didn't quite hear her words, but it didn't matter too much to him.

"How's that…?" He yawned.

"It's nothing, my dear." Sakura mumbled as she rested her head on his shoulder. He opened one eye and looked down at her. She didn't move an inch under his gaze. Shikamaru just succumbed and sat there with the pink haired girl resting her head on his shoulder. He could smell the faint aroma of vanilla about the girl. It was a quiet peaceful moment in the middle of a loud raging party. It is funny how there are always little pieces of heaven smack dab in the middle of hell. Time passed as the two merely enjoyed the other's company when someone finally entered the balcony with them.

"You." Immediately Sakura's opened up wide as she heard that familiar voice. The whole world stopped in that one moment for Haruno Sakura and the jailbird boy. There was no party with rabid, horny teenagers in it. There was no Shikamaru in that veranda with glass windows looking in on the party. The very land that they stood on was gone. The sky that gave them air to breathe disappeared in that instant. They weren't at a house for a party. They both hadn't had a couple of drinks just for the sake of having them. For one second in time, they were standing in a blank area with no one else in the world that could enter this space. They were staring at each other. It wasn't a hug. It wasn't a kiss. It was just a look of the eyes that expressed every emotion that the other felt at the moment. With a simple blink of the eye, the two of them looked relatively normal that second after their little moment.

"Me." She responded with a smirk without missing a beat. Shikamaru couldn't help but feel like he had missed something as he glanced at the man before him.

* * *

"What are you doing in here?" Sasuke asked as he looked at the pink haired girl. Uchiha Sasuke as we have discovered works both a morning shift and a night shift nearly every day as the owner of his father's company. Today, for the first time in a year, he called in sick, because of the pink haired girl before him. First of all, she gave him a hellish night where he didn't get any sleep, and now that he had taken off the whole day, he had no excuse to go this party held by a friend. Parties were wonderful, but with Uchiha Sasuke parties are more like drunk girls trying to hit on him more openly. He entered the party and was not surprisingly hit on by girls a lot. His irritation grew to a level where he couldn't stand it, so he quickly greeted his friends before running up the stairs. While people might be doing things up here, it would be relatively not as annoying. Relatively speaking of course.

He looked around and found teenagers making out, and some closed doors that he preferred to leave closed. Quite irritated he entered into one of the open rooms and locked the door behind him. To his surprise a small pink haired girl was sitting on the bed with messed up clothes and messed up hair. It was a highly suspicious sight. The covers on the bed were messed up with some blankets on the floor. Her pants were slipping down and he could see possibly boxers which surprised him, ye he wasn't all that surprising with her. Her jacket was on the floor, and her shirt was stretched a bit that it not slinked off her shoulder showing off a red strap that he suspected was her bra strap. Frankly, he wouldn't be surprised if it was any other girl, but since Haruno Sakura wasn't a girl, and an it. It didn't surprise him.

"Uchiha-san." Sakura's eyes widened in surprise at his sudden entrance, but the surprise was soon covered by her light laughter filling the air. "I swear my life is one big cliché. I am forever cursed by the same clichés over and over again."

"Sounds like quite an ordeal." He said as he leaned against the locked door feeling mighty suspicious of Haruno Sakura.

"I was doing everything and nothing here to answer your question." Sakura said as she leaned onto the messy covered bed.

"I didn't ask anything."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive." Sasuke rolled his eyes obviously thinking she was delusional once again.

"I swear I should just write denial all over your pretty little face." Sakura mumbled as she lifted her hands up and stretched a bit. "So I'm guessing that you don't enjoy parties either?"

"Not particularly."

"I can see why." Sakura closed her eyes. "Sit down, you look tired."

"You're not even looking at me."

"Regardless, it is probably more comfortable here than standing there."

"Hn."

"Or you can stand there. Hey do you want to come over to my house?"

"What?" Sasuke said as Sakura bruptly changed the subject.

"Well, I went over your home, and it's only courteous to return the favour."

"Can you even find the way to your house?"

"Not really, but if we start at the school, I'll find it sooner or later."

"You're really foolish."

"I think that I'm pretty clever for the most foolish person alive."

"Why?"

"I keep falling."

* * *

Ino's heart was breaking. Haruno Sakura had entered into a room with some strange man, who left a few minutes after their 'fun'—at least that's what Ino thought they were doing. About six minutes later, Uchiha Sasuke completely ignoring her greeting of hello walked into the room with an intense look on his face. From the outside it looked like they had purposefully met up in a room. It was probably coincidence, and she knew it to be true, yet the ache in her heat told her otherwise. How is that Haruno Sakura gets to be so close to Sakura after two weeks of silence while I've worked for two long years just to get him to talk to me? It truly wasn't fair.

"You should tell crying those tears." A voice said from behind her. "A party is for having fun. Hearts don't get broken here, because everyone is too drunk to realize what they are doing."

"You know he doesn't drink." Ino responded. She headed down the stairs with the boy following her closely. They weaved through the crowds and entered onto the veranda.

"I always end up here. First with that Haruno girl, and now with you, jeez. Women are so troublesome." Ino seemed hurt at the very mention of the name. "It has to do with her?"

"When do things here not have to do with her and Sasuke?" Ino complained as she wiped her tears and sat down quite angry.

"Chill out." Shikamaru said as he sat down next to the fuming blonde.

"Life sucks."

"Says the popular blondie."

"Go kill yourself." Ino rolled her eyes and sighed. "I hate it. Everything about her is just so…"

"Horrid?" Ino shook her head. It wasn't the right word. "Annoying? Bitchy? Cruel?"

"Close… but it's…"

"Unintentionally cruel?"

"That fits. She doesn't try to infuriate everyone, her very existence just does."

"Sounds pretty radical. Not in the hippy sense of the word, but in the literary term of the word." Shikamaru sighed and looked up at the stars. You could barely see them because of the bright lights competing from the city.

"Life is hard…"

"Life is a bitch, if it were easy, it'd be a slut." Ino slapped him upside the head and laughed. Shikamaru just rubbed his head and sighed. 'Trying to help girls only ends in pain…'

* * *

His day started out with the pink haired girl, and his day was ending up bittersweet with the pink haired girl. He left her house in a storm as soon as he had come. His evening was ruined. His brother ruined everything. He even managed to ruin Sakura. Now he couldn't even pretend to be interested in her. Anything that involved his brother, he refused to touch or deal with. He hated him with a dark loathing.

* * *

Sakura lay flat out on the floor of her living room staring at the ceiling.

"You won't break your promises will you?"

Sakura lay there for a long time. She wasn't sure what time it was, but the sun was peaking up from beyond the horizon. Her face was extremely blank. She walked to her shower and took a quick shower before changing clothes. Her mind wasn't necessarily working at the moment. She just picked up some jeans and a tank top. Sure, it was nearly winter, but somehow Sakura was too preoccupied to notice. She grabbed her bag and headed out on her bike. She arrived at school at third hour. She got lectured on it, but it didn't really phase her much. All of her thoughts were swirling as they had done the other day. She entered into her third period and sat down after apologizing for being late. Quickly she searched though her things for her headphones but realized in her daze she had left them at home. "Oh well." She sighed as for the first time, this year her headphones weren't on her person. The gossip was much easier to hear when her headphones were off, but it still felt like nothing. Fourth period flew by, and she headed for the stairs with her lunch in hand. Quickly she reached the roof. Still in a daze, the pink haired girl walked forward dropping her stuff along the way before leaning on the rail and looking out. A light wind blew. It chilled her in her thin clothing. She shivered, but stayed where she was. She closed her eyes and just let the wind hit against her.

_"You just kissed me." _

_"Yes." _

_"You're such a pedophile." _

_"Excuse me?"_

_"I'm 13." _

_"But weren't you driving that car?"_

_"Yes." _

_"Doesn't that make you a criminal?"_

_"Coming from the pedophile from jail?" _

--

_"Why did you let them cut your hair?" He asked as he looked at the much shorter hair._

_"Yes, I let them. What was I supposed to do? If I moved, I might have caused a cut and hurt myself. Great plan." She said sarcastically. "I saw the scissors gleaming from the fluorescent light. I clenched my eyes. I could feel my long hair dropping to the ground. My head began to feel lighter from the lack of weight. It felt all wrong. I felt like crying, but I didn't." _

_"What did you do then?"_

_"I followed my instincts like the jailbird had told me to." _

_"And?" _

_"I punched her square in the jaw." She shrugged. "Don't worry though, no one believes her." _

_"I wasn't worrying."_

_"Right." She said in a sing songy voice. He was captivated in that moment in time._

_"I like your hair shorter." _

_"It's not as bad as I thought it would be. It feels almost refreshing. I might keep it this way-" The girl continued to talk about mindless things, but the boy just stared at her completely captivated. It was then his mouth betrayed his mind._

"_I kind of want to kiss you." He said with a dull look on his face. The words surprised him and her. It didn't stop from what was going to happen next._

_"Okay." She leaned down and gave him a peck on the lips. He was left with the taste of cinnamon lip gloss on his lips. It was one of the biggest signs of affection, he'd had received at that time, and the coldest emotions he'd ever known. _

_"That wasn't exactly what I meant, but it'll do for now." _

_"It'll do?" She said with dry laughter. The two of them held hands as they walked through the city. He held hers to let go of everything, while she held onto his to hold on to her sanity slowly slipping away with her facades. _

_--_

_**"Sakura, are you drunk?"**_

_**"No, but I did have four drinks."**_

_**"So you are drunk."**_

_**"No, some people can hold their liquor better than others." **_

_**"Your house is tiny." He commented as he looked around the home.**_

_**"You are hurting my house's feelings." She rolled her eyes and headed out the hallway while he headed in. A slight misstep and the two ended up with lips colliding. "Ow…" Sakura said as she rubbed her lips. **_

_**"What the hell was that…" He complained.**_

_**"An accidental kiss is better than a forced one." She shrugged nonchalantly. He stared at her indignantly.**_

The bell rang, but she didn't feel like moving. Her feet betrayed her line of thinking and moved her down the stairs and to her locker. The dial had been repainted black. The janitor had cleaned it off last night, so for the first four hours, she could easily see the lock. With a light sigh, she pressed her ear to the locker and opened her locker in a delinquent fashion once again.

"So you've been to jail?" A girl said. Sakura in her daze didn't even try to study her features.

"Yes, I was sent to jail not juvie. That's how much of a bad egg I am." Sakura said not even trying to seem the least bit interested. The girl just huffed and pushed Sakura a little before storming off. "I think I'm going to go to the nurse's office." Sakura knocked on the door and entered. The nurse wasn't even there, but Hinata, to her surprise, was.

"Haruno-san?" Hinata squeaked. She was sitting in the nurse's chair. There was a bed for the sick. Immediately Sakura walked over and sat on it.

"Hyuuga-san, are you not feeling well?" Hinata glanced at Sakura strangely. She could tell something was off.

"Well, I fainted."

"Ah, so where is the nurse?"

"She's on her lunch break."

"Ah." Sakura sighed.

"Are you feeling well, Haruno-san?"

"Hyuu-" Sakura paused. "May I call you Hinata-san?"

"Huh?" Hinata said a little confused.

"When I say Hyuuga-san, I think of your older cousin Hyuuga Neji. I figure it'll be easier to just call you, Hinata-san, and him Hyuuga-san? What do you think?"

"That's fine." Hinata said turning light pink. "May I call you Sakura-san in return?"

"Of course, we are friends." Sakura enunciated the last word as if she had an epiphany midway through the word.

"Is something the matter, Har-Sakura-san?" Hinata said as she looked at her friend with concern.

"No, I just realized something. Thank you, Hinata-san." Sakura leaned back onto the bed. "I feel better now." It was as though a heavy burden had been lifted from Haruno Sakura's back. She felt like the wind now. She felt very light.

"Are you going to head back to class then?"

"Nope." Sakura said as she snuggled with the uncomfortable pillow. Hinata laughed.

"You're surprisingly lazy sometimes."

"Meh." Sakura said in response as she closed her eyes and took a deep breath before exhaling. "I just don't want to think about anything else besides this new piece of knowledge. If I go to class, then I might get distracted and once again feel unwell."

"That's such a fancy way of saying, 'I'm lazy,' isn't it?" Hinata smirked.

"Regardless, I'm not going to class." The two started to laugh lightly. It was a peaceful moment.

"I feel like I've known you for a long time Hinata-san."

"Me too." Hinata piped up.

"Excellent. Let's stay friends." Sakura smiled. The two had skipped both fifth and sixth hour and were still 'recuperating' in the nurse's office. "I wonder if the nurse just leaves school a lot, since she hasn't been here for two hours now?"

"Well, she normally isn't here. That's why when I called in sick for the both of us, the teacher didn't question me. The teachers never see her."

"Why is that?"

"She's the principal's assistant and is always busy."

"Huh. School is over."

"Yes, it is."

"Your cousin will be expecting you?"

"Yes."

"My bicycle will get stolen if I don't claim it."

* * *

Her prediction came true. That one girl who had confronted Sakura was probably the culprit. Ino wouldn't result to actual crime punishable by the state. She's too smart for that. Besides she hadn't run into Sasuke at all today which pretty much meant that Sakura was off her hit list of the day. That one girl… there were probably many others like her. She sat down at the curb looking at the cars pass by. "You can get home at sunset if you leave now, Sakura. Move, Move!" She commanded her body, but her mind insisted that her bicycle or a car would magically appear and take her away to her home. Her innocent fantasy will never come true. So sad.

"What are you doing here?" An unknown female voice said from above Sakura.

"My bike was stolen." Sakura didn't bother to look up to identify the voice owner. It was easier to just look out and envision her bicycle magically appearing.

"Pity. I'd offer you a ride, but I walk home when I have practice."

"Why is that?"

"My boyfriend refuses to wait for me while I practice. It's not interesting enough."

"Maybe it's because I haven't been here, or I just don't pay enough attention, but I was completely unaware of any after school programs."

"There aren't any. The principal here is kind of lazy and spends most of the money from the school on gambling, so we can't afford sports teams or clubs; however, we can use the facilities available as long as we are out of here by six."

"So unsupervised athletics? That sounds a little disorganized to me."

"There's a sign-up sheet on a bulletin board that divides the times students can use them. Ten students per hour, first come, first serve. It was her solution."

"I see."

"If you bike was stolen, shouldn't you have started for home earlier?"

"_Should_ being the key word."

"Denial is a bad thing."

"I know, but it sounds so much better than reality right now." The girl laughed in response to Sakura's excuse.

"Where do you live?"

"Somewhere down that way." Sakura said as she pointed down the main street.

"I live somewhere down that way too." The girl said with another laugh. "How about you stop living in denial, and we walk together? It won't get your bike back, but it will, however, not leave you stranded and take you home."

"That sounds reasonable, but I think I shall wait here for my bike to magically appear out of thin air." Sakura said as she sighed and titled her head sideways. Maybe it would work if she closed her eyes really tight and opened them really fast. It didn't. Suddenly her thoughts were run off track as an unknown force had apparently pulled Sakura to her feet by the hood of her jacket.

"I'm taking that longwinded answer as a yes." The girl said as she started to drag a stumbling and confused Sakura across the street. As they reached the other side of the street and began to walk down the sidewalk Sakura was finally allowed to turn around and walk alongside the girl. As it turns out, the girl had chocolate brown hair and matching eyes. She was wearing gym shorts and a loose pink tank top.

"Should I be suspicious that I'm walking with an unknown girl down a street while the sun is disappearing behind the horizon?" Sakura thought aloud. The girl just shot her a dark look.

"No, you should be thanking me for kicking your sorry butt into gear."

"Thank you then." Sakura said with a smirk. "So does this make you my knight in shining armor? Escorting me home and everything, a romantic girl's true fantasy!" Sakura batted her eye lashes and put her hands over her heart. The notion made the brown haired girl erupt into a fit of laughter.

"No wonder, there are so many rumours floating around about you, Haruno-san. You are exceeding nice and clever which means everyone has to hate you." The girl joked.

"Rumours are rumours." Sakura said as she looked up at the darkening sky. The sunset was like a burning flame across the sky. Only the cracking ashes of wood burning was the clouds slowly fading into darkness. The dark hours were slowly darkening the path of the two innocent girls. "So you know my name, may I know yours?"

"Tenten."

"If you're going to allow me to call you that, you can call me Sakura." Sakura replied with a smirk.

"Nice to meet you, Sakura-san." The two had formed a sweet little friendship in the matter of an hour's walk. "It appears that we split here. My house is down this street."

"Mine is a block up." Sakura said slightly surprised.

"There really is no such thing as coincidence, only fate." Tenten said in surprise. "Why does my damn boyfriend always have to be right?" Tenten looked up to the sky with an overly dramatic pose that practically said, 'Why me?' Sakura laughed at the over exaggerated pose. "I'll see you when I see you, Sakura-san."

"I'll see you when I see you, Tenten-san." Sakura said as she walked down the main street just another block up. Sakura arrived at her house and walked inside. Many people believe that Haruno Sakura was completely unaware of Tenten, Neji's girlfriend, when she gave back his jacket, or as the rumours were saying, when she said thanks for the sex to him while she returned his jacket that she kept from the night. It was during the day that she forgot her headphones that she realized that the girl with brown hair in buns in her AP English class was Tenten, Neji's girlfriend. The truth was from the moment that Haruno Sakura heard the voice behind her in the school parking lot, she was blissfully aware of the hate that Tenten should have held for her. She was pleasantly surprised that she found someone who didn't hate her for having caught the attention of someone else's boyfriend.

Though somewhere in her heart, she denied but knew that Tenten blamed herself more than Sakura. It was that thought that scared Sakura just a little. It was one of the few things that ever made Haruno Sakura guilty. No one would ever know why.

It had been a very fruitful day regardless of the guilt she would eventually feel. Not only had she cleared her head, she had added to the very tiny list of people who probably wouldn't be annoyances. This list of people eventually evolved into the list of people that Sakura would visit when she'd return if she ever did return.

* * *

**I hate this feeling.**

**I hate it so much.**

**Every word you've ever spoken to me echoes in my mind.**

**Every time mistake you've made replays in my mind.**

**Every action that you do that is so natural carves its way into my mind.**

**Every thing that makes you different from everyone else is just so much more painfully obvious. **

**Each and every action that is normal seems so much more abnormal now that I'm out of your little world.**

**Everything is back to the way it should be.**

**To be honest, I should thank my brother for allowing this normalcy back into my life, yet I still feel this lingering feeling of regret. I no longer have to wonder what goes on in that stupid little head of yours. I no longer have to try and explain this extreme hatred that not even my most hated brother can breed in me. It is like I have a nasty taste in my mouth that just won't go away. **

**"Promise me that you'll hate me." The words echoed in my mind for the longest time. I can't help but feel this unerring regret pulsating through me at agreeing to your ridiculous promise. I hate you with every fiber of my being, for knowing my brother rather personally, for siding with him, for being so infuriating with every stupid action you do, for everything. Yet this feeling persists.**

* * *

Somewhere out there, my fb is sitting around counting the long list of people who hate her. As long as my own list is, hers is probably twice that though for different reasons. While I can wreak as much havoc on their physical bodies, she can wreak so much more havoc mentally. Perhaps, it was because I was so messed up in the head that she repaired me rather than destroyed. Or maybe it was just that she found the darkness in me a good climate for her. Such a strange little child she was. Sometimes I wonder what other people think of her, and that stupid old cliché comes into my head. She told it to me, and to this day, it fits her really well which only pisses me off more. "I'm one of the lucky few that everyone loves to hate." I don't really miss her much, because sometimes I wonder if she was ever really here.

There is one thing that I really miss about her though, it's her lips.

Her lips always tasted like sweet cinnamon.

She said that mine tasted different from the jailbird's, but that both of them tasted like lips.

* * *

Haruno Sakura had just finished taking her shower and changing into her pajamas, when she started to sneeze a lot. She walked out of the bathroom in her room and sat down on her bed in the dark. She didn't feel like turning on her lamp to see. She was going to head to sleep anyways. "I'd say I have a cold, but I'm pretty sure that is untrue. Angry girls almost completely make that assumption false. There are most definitely people talking about me." She mumbled to herself.

"When aren't they?" A voice said from the dark corner of her room. It was then that Haruno Sakura realized that she needed to buy a damn lock for her window.

* * *

Did you figure out how to read it? It goes Climax, Perspective, Climax, Perspective, Beginning, Middle, Falling Action, End. I think it worked out quite well, and I hope I have thoroughly confused you.

I explained alot about the school, because I felt like I needed to when I added in certain things. Tenten and Sakura meet. Hinata and Sakura have their moment. Sasuke leaves Sakura alone. You see into Sasuke's head and someone else's (I think you know who this is by now) head. You figure out who the jailbird really is, or at least you should have by now. The reason behind Sakura's driving at 13 will be explained later cause I am too lazy now. I have a legitimate reason behind it. Chill.

For those of you who don't understand the signifigance of honorifics in this fiction, google it or private message me, and I'll try my best with my very limited japanese language knowledge try to explain. If you are wondering how I know, it is because my japanese friend explained it to me until it was drilled into my head.

Yeah so I updated at 2:29 AM one Monday. At least it's one of the first times I update within a month's time. If I get like one review, I'll use my spring break time to write and post the next chapter. oh yeah, I'M ON SPRING BREAK!

oh and one last thing.. jeez this author's rant sectiony thingy is long. "fb" is not a mistake. they call each other fb for Friends with Benefits. teehee.


	6. How Close to the Sun We Fly

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hi there, I haven't updated in a while, and you guys are all probably pretty pissed and going to get mad-er, because I'm going to end this story abruptly within this and one other chapter, because I don't have the time to write this story as fully as possible. This chapter itself is rather short (when you omit my author's note it gets even tinier) so excuse me for that, I felt that you all deserved an update--even if it was the suckish-ist one ever created in all of mankind.

* * *

* * *

There were so many signs I hadn't noticed.

How could I be so blind as to not know… that he was dying.

It was as if it was a black and white movie. That was a simple way to describe things in Haruno Sakura's mind. She saw the people moving and opening their mouths, but before the words could be spoken, little subtitles revealed all while the mouth moved ever so slow. People were predictable, but every now and then they'd surprise you.

'It's suffocating being around you. You take the air out of my lungs. Every time I see you, it's like I'm slowly falling into the ocean loosing my breath. The weight of the water is crushing my very being, and slowly as the oxygen leaves my brain, I go into a haze filled only with drifting thoughts of you and your strange ways.'

"I promise I'm not everything in this world."

'I know that and yet when I see your face, I can't help but think that. You are such a horrible person, yet you are innocent.'

"How do you know?"

'Because when I look into your eyes, I see it. I see the sadness overflowing. You don't want anyone to see it, because you're afraid that they won't understand since it's such a simple matter that you've taken to extremes. You're so pathetic, but I can't blame you for that.'

"Yes, you can."

'If you store up everyone else's sadness, even though it's unintentional, you're going to end up unhappy.'

"I am happy."

'No, you're not. I know you're not. You know you're not. You're a hollow shell that no one will ever love, and for that reason only I pity you. You who pity all you see.'

"What do you want me to say?"

'I want you to stand up for yourself. No one else is going to do it. There is a point I swear. You can't let this bullying go unpunished. Be mad. Be angry. Stop being so damn lifeless.'

"Why should I listen now?"

'Stop it! Stop talking, stop hiding, it isn't you.'

"Who am I?"

'You're not this.'

"How do you know?"

"Because I love you."

The words broke through the constant silence. The black and white movie had ended. The reel was spinning random images and coming to a halt. Her eyes widened at the revelation, and she could feel the tears pricking at the corner of her eyes.

"No!" She screamed. Her voice hit an octave that he had never heard before. "You can't! I won't allow it! Please don't! Please, just… no! NO! NO! NO!" She gripped her head as if she was in excruciating pain.

"What is so wrong with love?"

"Nothing, I just…" Calmness fell over the girl. She stared out blankly as if she was finally over the sudden irrational behavior. "Please excuse my behavior. You're just so much like him, only you are so different."

'That doesn't make sense.'

The storm was over. The movie was slowly starting to play. She could only hear the sounds of the reel passing by smoothly as it came back to her. "I'm happier this way… I'm happier this way… I'm happier this way…"

"You're happier because we're here waiting for you."

"You're happier because you're ready for love now."

"You're happier because we'll healthy for each other."

"You're happier because you're fixing me."

"You're happier because I'm here."

"You're happier because I'm here."

"You're happier because I'm here."

"You're happier because I'm here."

"You're happier because I'm here."

"You're happier because I'm here."

"You're happier because I'm here."

"You're happier because I'm here."

"You're happier because I'm here." The voices continued to mock her only worsening her crumbling state.

"Are you alright?" The boy reiterated for the sixth time. The girl had unknowing flung herself into his chest and began to cry uncontrollable as if someone was tormenting her in the worst way possible.

"Did you know everyone has a certain toleration to pain?"

"Huh?"

"Some people freak out and nearly kill themselves over their appearance. Many people mock them, but in their minds, it is like being paralyzed from the neck down. Some people take a lot of shit in their lives. Their parents honestly don't care about their children's wishes and put them down a lot which causes a complex that is very hard to overcome. Some people have medical problems which makes them feel so strange. There are so many different variations of pain. One shouldn't mock another form of it, yet people do. How pathetic is that?"

"I-"

"And the only reason people look down on people who have lesser problems is because their life has been so shitty they don't have to worry about that same crap, or they are so desensitized to it, it doesn't matter. It is nothing but a subject of mockery."

"Ah." He held her still by her shoulders as the girl spouted words at a million miles an hour.

"I'm happier because you're here…" She mumbled as her eyes seemed to empty into that haze again. The tears ceased and her breathing began to even. "If I ever die, promise me something."

"What?"

"Promise me, you'll dance on my grave."

"What?" He said in disbelief.

"Er… promise me that you'll see who I truly was a person not to have their life celebrated."

"I don't understand."

"I'm going to leave someday to travel the world. I'm going to travel the world with only one person, and I don't want to have anything to tie me down."

"Me?"

"No, you need to learn to walk on your own two feet before you can even come one step closer to me."

"So who is the lucky guy who stole your heart?"

"He didn't steal anything. We just happen to need to use each other at some point in our lives in the near future."

"Near future?"

"I'm moving back to somewhere in ice country to live with another relative."

"You're running away."

"When you interrupt people before they can properly explain, you'll get into more fights. After that I expect to be get kicked out and finally allowed to live on my own. I'll return to Konoha my home town and live in the house my parents left behind. I'm going to finish high school and make sure all my ties are severed."

"Why do all this? Why can't you just run away?"

"Someday someone will remember me, and I'll know that and want to come back. I never want to be like them. I want to make sure I'm not leaving anyone who could possibly want me back."

"Your plan will never work."

"Why is that?" She asked.

"I'll always want you to come back to the time when you were here as my fb." He licked his lips and smirked.

"You're surprisingly stupid sometimes."

* * *

"I'd love to kiss you right now, but the fact of the matter is that involves touching you, and I can't risk catching arrogant son of a bitch." Sakura said as she looked to the mysterious figure in her room. Her nerves were now on fire as she stood close to him. There was electricity in the air as the pink haired girl's emotions were flying loose. Obviously she needed no guard around this person, yet she hated them all the same and wanted one.

"Is that so?"

"I wish upon you a horribly bloody death, but I'm pretty sure if I were the one administering it, you wouldn't mind which only makes me detest your very being every moment you are near my vicinity."

"Kitty has claws." The voice let out a warm raspy voice. "It's funny that when we first met, you seemed like 'the goodie' type of girl, but it turns out you have a wide vocabulary you use for evil. I'm not sure what other powers you use for evil either…"

"Shut the hell up and leave."

"I thought showers were supposed to be relaxing."

"It is no concern of yours." Sakura glared out into the darkness. "Why did you even bother to come? Go to hell already."

"I still don't understand why you postpone this."

"I don't understand why you're so retarded."

"Ouch. That's a horrible thing to say."

"The truth hurts."

"You're a real bitch."

"You're really gay."

"Nice comeback."

"It was as good as one of your jokes, right?"

"Smart girls suck."

"It's not really my fault that you can't think your way out of a box." Sakura sighed and sat down on her bed thoroughly exhausted. "I really wish you'd just leave me alone. That'd be simply fabulous."

"You seem to be angrier from the last time I saw you."

"You seem to be more of an idiot than when I left you."

"You left me?"

"Fine, you left me." Sakura leaned back into her soft comfortable and closed her eyes. When she closed her eyes, she was past all of this. She was standing at the edge of a mountain looking down at the beautiful landscape. She could feel the wind harshly beating against her clothes and the smell of a sea breeze nearby. A single person was holding her hand, keeping her from her strong desire to jump off the mountain edge and be done with it. They were to be each others life line. This was the life that Haruno Sakura saw in that very second, but as she opened her eyes, the illusion was gone. She was back on her bed in the dark with an annoying friend who had sneaked into her room through window. "Sometimes I think I'm going to slip away into my dreams, and it scares me."

"That is entirely stupid."

"It doesn't seem that bad sometimes. Everyday it seems more appealing."

"You are one depressed son of a bitch."

"Not really. I just happen to like dreams more than reality sometimes."

"Like I said, one depressed son of a bitch."

"Get out of my room."

"And to think, I came here with pure intentions."

"Right, pure." Sakura said sarcastically as she looked up at her ceiling.

"If you're planning on joining us anyways, why does it matter when or how?"

"…" The girl remained silent. The silence grew between them and as Sakura sat up to look at the man, she was surprised to find that he was gone. "That's one headache gone…" Sakura sighed and crawled under her covers. "I still hope you know…" She mumbled as she closed her eyes and tried to escape into her dreams.

* * *

There were so many signs I hadn't noticed.

Of course, he wouldn't go to just any high school party. He hates them just as much as me. Of course, he wouldn't randomly find my town of all towns and look up my home address and talk with me for no good reason. Especially this town where there is a certain someone he isn't allowed to see. Of course that visit wasn't just out of their impatience but his need. I mean since when does he ever demand things so urgently of me. Of course, he would find the one person he isn't allowed to see at my home.

There were so many signs I hadn't noticed.

How could I be so blind as to not know… that he was dying.

* * *

Sakura came late to school again. Her hair was pulled back into a messy bun, and she was wearing leggings and an over-sized black sweater with combat boots. She held her books tightly to her chest and gazed out obviously lost in her thoughts. Something seemed amiss about the girl. The prideful air that made the other girls hiss in envy was not there. The invincible armor that no prank nor taunt could penetrate was gone. The air of intrigue that sparked both Uchiha Sasuke and Hyuuga Neji's attentions was gone. Yes, there was something amiss with Haruno Sakura. It was like at any moment during the day, she was going to break down in tears for no apparent reason, and everyone could physically see this. Sasuke still angry ignored it. Neji found it of little interest. Tenten didn't feel it right to ask the girl she hardly knew. Ino wanted to help her, but her mind was still full of petty jealousy that would only stain the broken looking pink haired girl. Naruto froze unable to do anything. It was too strange. No one knew what to do.

It was pure determination that allowed Hinata to walk up to her friend a little after lunch and ask her about her troubles.

"Sakura-san," Hinata's soft voice fell upon deaf ears. "Is there something the matter?" Her cheeks were pink and she looked as if she were about to faint at any moment. Sakura walked right past the girl not even acknowledging her existence. Yes, something had shaken Haruno Sakura to the core.

* * *

_Keep on going deeper, even though you're only in the shallow end. Keep on searching for the bottom, and you'll find find it and be disappointed.

* * *

_

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTE 2.0: Sorry for the interrupting, but before you continue reading on, I need to explain some things. I wrote the above section immediately after writing the last chapter not necessarily seeing where it would go. I forgot everything I had previously written here and wrote an entirely new chapter to replace it below, but the two have become puzzle pieces that I forced together and oddly enough they create the feeling I am going for--mass confusion. So if it seems like, a scene is out of place from reading the previous scene, it might be, but more than likely it isn't. Any who, you'll all hate me by the end of this very short chapter anyways, so continue reading on-and please forgive me for failing to give you the fanfiction I intended to create.  


* * *

I can still feel the sting of betrayal on my hands—the urge to strangle the woman that you loved more than me and an undying urge to kill the both of you in cold blood. I can still feel the insanity that crept into my mind when I realized that it is quite possible to love someone else more than me. I cried my first tears of anger. I remember breaking everything in sight at my aunt's house. I remember destroying anything I could get my hands on. I screamed and yelled. I wanted to fight someone, anyone, and anything that could help this strange insanity I felt.

In my head a great battle was raging. Not an imaginary battle of me and that woman, but a battle of the logical part of me and the raw unstable part of me. It was almost like I had two voices urging me to feel differently. The first voice was calm and level—the peaceful all knowing eye of the hurricane of emotions.

"He never stated that he loved you, furthermore, is it not human to desire such things? Being your age means that such things are impossible. You don't even look like that yet. The age difference is so great right now. It is only human to desire such things. It is no one's fault." The voice kept on cooing. It still echoes like that sometimes when I think of you and her.

"Be angry! Feel your raw emotions! He chose his own desires over you. He chose everything over you. Be angry! Scream! Yell! Destroy him! Never speak to him again! Make him pay for it! Make him pay! Make him realize the difference between that skank and you! Feel!" The angry voice thrashed about in my mind. Its pure anger and hatred felt so much more comfortable, and sometimes it still does.

"He's trying to make you hate him!" The calm voice pleaded.

"Don't analyze just do! That's why no one can see the real you! Stop doing that! Just feel your emotions! Let that become you!" The angry voice screamed as it wreaked havoc in my heart. The comfort in this anger only becomes more comfortable. It is always easier to pretend to be something you aren't. You fit in better.

"You can't change who you are." The calm voice stated sadly.

"That slut did this! She's trying to ruin everything! He's trying to ruin everything!" The angry voice yelled.

"You don't even know the girl. Don't become like them. Don't hurt him like that." The calm voice reasons. As the argument continues I can predict which side I want to take and which side I know I'll take.

"He hurt you! Just be like them! Who cares?" The angry voice screams.

"I do." Both voices say at the same time. He just laughed at my story and hopped out the window that day.

* * *

Those two words made it all clear back then. They still battle and argue to this day, but I stand strong in my decision back then as I do now. Yet somewhere in the back of my mind, I know there is a third voice that I continually ignore. I never want to face it, and that is why I continue to let those only those two emotions fill all my thoughts. If I ever decided to grow up like everyone else and face it, I would look back into my deepest thoughts and face the darkest emotion I don't let myself feel. It is also the most innocent emotions out of all the ones I have. It is the reason why people hate me, and the reason why I supposedly change people. Two people know this, and today a third person will inevitably find out.

* * *

"Why are you crying?" He asks me. It's because these tears decided to betray me.

"I'm not." I say.

"You can lie all you want, but those tears tell me otherwise." He smirks. Life is just a game to you. Please don't talk to me. I know you don't care.

"These might be false tears." I say cleverly. He won't believe me.

"I don't believe you." He's clever too.

"Why is that?"

"Your face is always blank when you really feel something."

"Documenting things in your scrapbook of me again?"

"Distractions don't work well."

"I'm not distracting you."

"Yes, you are."

"No, I'm not."

"It's not working, Sakura."

"We're not on a no suffix basis, are we?"

"Again with the distractions."

"After ignoring me for months, you suddenly decide to talk to me."

"Yes."

"Why?"

"That's none of your business."

"It's because of my connection to your brother, right?"

"Hn."

"When you don't respond, it pretty much means I'm right."

"Is that why you're crying?"

"Yes."

"Even if you were a normal girl, I wouldn't accept that answer."

"Why is that?"

"Normal girls have friends who immediately know what's wrong and find their friends."

"So you are a girl expert?"

"Not really, most people—namely girls—are predictable."

I'm not really thinking. Words just keep on coming out of my mouth. It was like I was watching a black and white movie. Both of our mouths were moving and things were definitely coming out, but only silence fills the air. I, as the audience, only looked on reading the words on the screen while silence fills the air. It's a rerun of a movie I've seen many times before. It's the part of the story where the girl finally tells her dark secret to the boy. It is the part where the girl admits everything that drives her. It is the part where she tells the boy who believes that she is some overly interesting doll find out that she is really just another raggedy ann doll.

"So you should know why I'm sad."

"Really now?"

"Well I am a girl, Uchiha-san."

"If you can call yourself that, sure."

"What is it all little girls dream of? What is the dream that all little girls dream of before anything else?"

"I don't understand."

"Love."

Her big secret revealed, the boy holds her tight in his arms or pushes her away in disgust. Neither of these things will happen. The boy's expression is priceless as he realizes that the girl is madly in love with him, or is it something else? They never understand, and the girl never wants to explain. So she walks away knowing that the situation is hopeless. She closes her eyes, and as soon and as hard as the tears had come, they are gone. The boy just stands there waiting for an explanation not knowing that nothing is going to come. The climax is over and the falling action will now start. Only it doesn't. Nothing has changed in the boy's eyes or in the girl's life. Nothing has changed, yet the whole world has been rearranged if only the boy cared to look.

* * *

_"Love?" The boy asked as her words hit him. "So everything is for that? I really don't see the selfishness in that." _

_ "You don't understand." The girl said as the tears slowly stopped. It was almost automatic. _

_ "Help me." He pleaded to her._

_ "I can't." She whispered. Her face was as blank as an unpainted canvas. _

_ "What do you mean?" He stared at her. Her face read that is wasn't a big deal, yet somehow the way she said things, he knew. He knew that it wasn't. It would never not be a big deal. It clicked in his head in that instant, and as the memories of their time together passed through his head, every sin he had committed seemed only more shameful. "You really are a demon from my own personal hell, yet... exactly the opposite of that." The girl just remained silent and stared up at him with pleading eyes. _

_ "You can leave now." He barely heard the words, yet they shook him to his very core. "I don't need you anymore."_

_ "Goodbye." _

_ "Bye."_

_

* * *

_

_ The two of them were standing at the school entrance. This was her last day there. The sun was slowly setting as their time slowly drew to an end. Every secret was laid out as if an apology for him. _

_ "You're just like me." He said with widened eyes. _

_ "I think that's why I better leave." The girl said sadly. _

_ "Why, we are so perfect for each other?" He smiled._

_ "I am so unhealthy for you." She went on her toes and gave him a peck on the lips. "You need to stand on your own two feet. You need someone who can hold you up, not drag you down." _

_ "That's a bunch of bullshit!" He yelled. She just looked at her school for a last time not wanting to take in his dark expression. It would take time for him to truly understand the situation, and the girl knew it, but she wanted him to love her when she left not hate her like everyone else. _

_ "Remember your promise." She waved goodbye and started to run away from him. He wanted to run after her, but he kept his place. _

_ "I don't want to."  
"You will." She yelled without looking back. If she looked back, she might have regretted her decision even more. _

_ "Bye." _

_

* * *

_

Both times, I didn't see them for a good two years after telling them such things. Both times, it should have hurt me, but it didn't. I wouldn't let it. That's why I am sometimes relieved that they both still think of me as a demon. When I finally leave, they'll hate me and never want me to come back. They'll never miss me. They'll never give me a reason to want to come back. I'll never have to feel guilty for leaving someone behind.

* * *

I looked out at the school yard. Why had I run towards the school at midnight? Why had I picked the lock and walked into the building and headed to the roof? I didn't know. I could see it all unfolding. I could see my small group of 'friends' growing over the year, and by the end of it, everyone who needs to change has changed, and we're all sitting on the grass eating our lunches and laughing in a jocular mood. I could slowly see myself lower down my guard and smiling just like everyone else, but more than that I see this shallow bitter person I am now slowly fading away into nothingness. The climate of the group feels so natural that I can't help but wonder if I wasn't so busy breaking hearts I would be able to have had this at every location I went to. If I wasn't so cynical—but I am cynical; and I can't trust these people.

Next to that same image I see something that scares me, I look down at all those people smiling and laughing in the same circle fitting perfectly without my existence there, and it still flows seamlessly. I close my eyes and envision the jailbird boy holding my hand as we run from everything, and we both finally breathe in fresh air and let this heavy burden lift off. The feeling of being needed is so overpowering that I want to run towards the jailbird boy right now. All of the lines are being blurred as I stay here. Whenever I look at those people, I know that I can't let them go either. The images are etched into my mind as if they had already occurred. How many days had I dreamed of leaving this all behind? How many times have I dreamed of the jailbird boy and me? How many times had I wished that I could find people like this everywhere? They are only a little lost, and once they are guided on the right path, they will not stray. Why do I have such an attachment?

The voices rage on as I stand here at the rooftop. I hear my name being called in all directions, and my heart wants to answer each and every call. "Why can't any of you need someone else?!" I screamed out to no one. I screamed a piercing yell at the top of my lungs and gripped the railing as though it was my lifeline on the tall school building. As I panted out of breath and tired from screaming, I collapsed on that spot and sat there looking up at the starry sky.

"Jailbird boy, I need you right now." I put my head between my legs and slumped there through the night. I'm not sure if I even feel asleep, but at some point I was aware that the sunrise was coming and I looked up. It was a sunrise, and it was entirely breathtaking. That first rays of light shone brightly breaking up the darkness we call night. The sky turned a gray color as the warm light filtered through the cold. It was breathtaking, but there was no epiphany. There was no magical moment that healed all these aches. There wasn't any magic like in all the fairytales. My prayers of a prince coming to save me would never be answered, just as my problems now wouldn't be solved by some magical feeling. There was just me watching the sunrise in silence. I felt sick to my stomach if anything. "Dreams are useless. If reality isn't as you want it, make it better."

* * *

It was dangerous for Uchiha Sasuke. Her seat was empty. Now that she was gone, he could stare at it openly. He could stare for what was lack of there. The desk that she rested her feet upon was already twisted at her angle too. What a waste to have things set up perfectly for you only for you to be missing. He could see her figure perfectly there. Her legs stretched out as she leans into the back of her chair and begins to write notes. During the past two weeks, he had done nothing but avoid her. Anyone who associates with Itachi was forever burned in his book; however, he couldn't help but feel regretful because she was interesting. Her very presence created a circle of space in crowds, and she seemed to enjoy the distance.

"Sasuke," He turned his head in response, but no one was there. "I'm crying. Isn't that what you always wanted to see?" He could hear her voice. He felt obsessed with her and that was where the danger lied.

* * *

"He's gone."

Sakura sprang up from a hellish nightmare with cold sweat running down her forehead. Her shirt was soaked in this sweat along with the blankets covering her. She had seen it as clear as day, but she didn't want to accept it. It was reality though, not a nightmare. Her breath was hitched in her throat as she ran a hand through her short messy hair.

There are times when you can tell if something is wrong or might go wrong. There are times when you can prevent these things if you catch onto the clues soon enough. Haruno Sakura was not fortunate enough. There are times when things are inevitable, but this was not one of those times. She could have prevented it or at least eased his pain, yet she didn't. Why did this town affect her so much? Why had she decided to return? What was clouding her judgment so badly? She already knew the answer but didn't want to admit it. She couldn't be like _them_. There was an unnatural attachment to this place that froze her to the spot. It was because of _them_. Of course, it was. There was still hope in her heart, and because of that selfish desire, her only—their only chance of escape had slipped through her fingers.

It turned out that right when he needed her the most, she was oblivious. There are no coincidences in this world. Everything had been intended. Why was she so fucking blind? She wanted to cry. She wanted to scream. She wanted to run. She wanted to apologize. She wanted to go back in time. She wanted to die.

The jail bird boy had been set free.

* * *

She was distant the day before she disappeared.

That was the only way to describe Haruno Sakura that day. She didn't take any notes and didn't respond to any of the teachers when asked questions. The teachers offered to send her to the infirmary, but she refused to move until the bell rang. Her friends called out to her, but she waltzed past them as if nothing could break her out of the strange trance she was in. It was like she was forcing herself to finish that day of school.

She was wearing all white—a pure white sundress with a sunhat with a white ribbon and frilly white parasol. It was a complete turn-around of what she normally wore. The only thing that didn't stick out was her normal messenger bag which seemed strangely fuller. That day at lunch while her friends all went to lunch, she went up to the rooftop and tossed something off the roof watching it scatter down onto the field. After that moment, she was never seen again. Later, her friends found little scraps of paper with nothing written on it, but goodbye.

Perhaps someone might have noticed, if they had seen her the day before or noticed the way that Sasuke seemed strangely confused after lunch that day. Maybe if someone had figured out that white was a colour of mourning for Sakura. But, they didn't, because they all hoped that she was still hoping. They all trusted that she still trusted. They all understood without understanding anything.

* * *

"It's been a while, since I've seen you cry."

"How did you know?"

"I stalk you, remember?"

"Why does everyone keep leaving me?"

"Because we all want you, and we'd rather die than share."

"Everyone is a liar." He wrapped his arms around her and held her close. It was something they often did as _friends_. There were few times she really needed—not wanted—needed comfort, and this was one of those times.

_"Would you run away with me?" He asked. The two were lying on the bed in some bedroom idly facing each other awkwardly. People would suspect the two were going to do something other than talk intimately when they walked into a bedroom together, but the only time they could truly talk was in strangely intimate moments like this._

_ "No, you're stupid." She laughed as she reached towards his figure and buried her face in his chest as she hugged him like an old friend would—only on a bed so it was a bit more awkward. He held her close for a moment. _

_ "It'd be wrong to take you away, wouldn't it?"_

_ "What are you talking about?" _

_ "Sakura, you never change do you? You're always so warm and full of life even though you're so cold. You still claim I'm more innocent than you, and truth be told, I'm the one staining your soul. It'd be wrong." _

_ "You're not making sense again, Mr. Pedophile," A smile graced her lips as she pulled back and looked up at him with warm wide eyes. "You are more innocent, and if we're talking about cold, Mr. Stoic, you're not the best example." He looked down at her eyes full of some emotion that Sakura couldn't comprehend. He reached out and grabbed her hand intertwining it with his. _

_ "There is no blood on your hands physically."_

_ "There is no blood on your hands morally." _

_ "Yet there are stains." They said simultaneously as they let their intertwined fingers separate. _

_ "You're my best friend, you know that right?" She sighed. "I can't live with you for too long." _

_ "I know." He repeated it once more, though Sakura was not sure why. "I know..."_

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTE 3.0: There you have it, the chapter that confuses all other chapters. If you pay attention to the events that have happened previously, everything should match except for the part with Sasuke avoiding her, because I don't remember the time period this is jumping to and from, and I don't have the time to go back and read it all, because it is on a different computer at a different house. The events that took place in this chapter that aren't semi-flashbacks all occurred approximately over two days. If you can figure out what occurred each day, good job to you, because I barely understood it, and I don't even remember.

I wrote this chapter/the other chapter quite some time ago, so forgive me for any discrepancies between the two, because frankly, I feel so bad for having given up hope in writing this fiction. I wasn't able to incorporate Neji and Tenten as much as I had intended, same with Gaara. His mentioning had a purpose of which is no longer relevant, because I can't find it to write the two extra chapters that would entangle the other characters into Sakura's Filtering Magic Powers. If you really wish to know, just PM, I'll flat out tell you all my plans, because none of them will come to fruition now unfortunately.

I have lost the spark to write this fiction, and the ending will occur in the next chapter, but I assure you it will provide closure, explanations, mass confusion, and a sense of anger at this failure of an author. I hope you all can forgive me for my stupidity in taking on something I intended to finish, but will never truly complete as I saw fit. If anyone wants to take up the task, also PM, and we can chat about it--though I hightly doubt any of you would want to since this fiction is icky beyond all belief.


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